
/ 



GERMANY, 

FROM 1760 TO 1814; 



gftrtcfjes of toman %iit, 

FROM THE DECAY OP THE EMPIRE TO THE 
EXPULSION OF THE FRENCH. 



BY 



J 

MRS. AUSTIN 



LONDON : 

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 
1854. 



PRINTED BY 

JOHK EDWARD TAYLOR, LITTLE QTIEEN STREET, 
LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, LONDON. 



TMP96 



-02 3226 



763 



r'-3 



PREFACE. 



The materials out of which this little book is chiefly 
made are as follows. 

Three Articles which appeared in the c Edinburgh 
Review/ in the years 1842,, ,1844, and 1847, respec- 
tively ; together with some part of an Article, on the 
Life of StefFens, printed in the e British and Foreign 
Review ; in 1841 ; and lastly, a fourth unpublished 
Article, suggested by the third, and intended as a 
sequel to it. I had long ago been compelled by ill- 
ness to lay it aside, and had nearly forgotten its ex- 
istence, when the appearance of several new and im- 
portant works relating to the period of which I had 
intended to speak, made me think that such an 
account of them as I could give might not be wholly 
unwelcome to the English public, 

a 2 



vi 



PREFACE. 



It then occurred to me to consider these trifles 
as a sort of whole ; connected together by slight and 
irregular links, it is true, but still pervaded by one 
predominant interest, and tending to one important 
point, — the influence of the social and domestic life 
of a nation on the great collective life called its 
History, and, on the other hand, the effect of the 
political character and fortunes of a nation on the 
lives and characters of individuals. 

These are considerations of so high and serious a 
nature, that I should have shrunk from any attempt 
to deal with them, had it been proposed to me in 
the outset. But they grew, out of my subject; I 
was led into them by imperceptible degrees, and I 
now find myself — not without some alarm— far be- 
yond the modest limits I had originally prescribed to 
myself. Yet, as will be seen by those who have the 
patience to go to the end of my solemn and eventful 
story, I have, as much as possible, kept to my calling 
of translator ; and, at the risk of wearying them with 
extracts and quotations, have secured myself behind 
the welcome defence of inverted commas. 

It is probable that by putting all these bits of ore 
into the crucible, and casting them into one sym- 



PREFACE. 



Vll 



metrical mould, I might have made a more readable 
book, and one which I might with greater show of 
justice call my own. But I have an unconquerable 
prejudice in favour of the genuine and authentic; I 
have no ambition to call original what must in fact 
be borrowed ; and in the choice of many an eloquent 
and touching passage I have, I confess, been led, not 
only by the matter, but by the form. I have in- 
dulged myself in what I may call the dilettantism of 
a translator. 

I quote chiefly from Autobiographies. Their value, 
even to the historian, is more and more appreciated ; 
and for one whose sole aim is to give glimpses of the 
internal life of a people, they are the only sources 
to which to repair. Till within the present century 
Autobiographies or Memoires were rare in Germany : 
she had nothing to oppose to the abundance, variety, 
and charm of the literature of that kind for which 
France will ever stand unrivalled. I remember hear- 
ing Tieck assert that there is no such thing as an un- 
interesting autobiography, if it be but tolerably true ; 
and I am inclined to agree with him. Unquestion- 
ably this is one of the manifestations of the reigning 
desire to occupy the attention of the public with the 



viii 



PREFACE. 



person of the author ; but it is the most unaffected, 
sincere, and innocent. In novels, poems, travels, 
note-books, etc., the reader is, in the first place, 
cheated, — for the work professes to treat of external 
things, and not of the author's idiosyncrasies; and, 
secondly, the writer escapes responsibility ; he is 
J anus-headed, and can always turn to the reader his 
real or his poetical face, as it suits his purpose. 

But the fashion of writing autobiographies which 
has for some time prevailed in Germany is not to be 
ascribed solely to the garrulous self-display of the 
age; it has another and a more respectable source. 
The men are fast moving off the stage of life who 
have lived through the two greatest revolutions that 
Germany ever knew, — the revolt against established 
opinions and tastes which dates from the youth of 
Goethe, and the revolt against foreign domination 
and internal misgovernment, which may be regarded 
as a consequence of the former. The few remaining 
actors in these scenes have lived through times which 
can never return: they have seen the subjugation 
and the deliverance of their country; and we cannot 
wonder if they are reluctant to leave the world 
without recording every link by which their indi- 



PREFACE. 



ix 



vidual existence was connected with the great life 
which developed itself with so much energy and with 
such important results. 

As a further apology for venturing on so grave a 
subject as the War of Liberation, I must add, that 
it was impossible to live in Germany, and in inti- 
mate intercourse with Germans, many of whom had 
acted and suffered in that war, so long as I did, 
without catching some of the enthusiasm with which 
they spoke of it. And accordingly, during my resi- 
dence at Berlin in the winter of 1842-43, I read 
everything I could find on that subject, and listened 
with unwearied interest to the conversation of those 
who had shared in the ruin and the restoration of 
Prussia. 

In other parts of Germany, though the subject 
was less prominent than in Prussia, allusions to the 
fe French times 99 were of continual recurrence ; and 
thus the dismal picture of a conquered people was 
filled up by what I gathered in the South. 

In retracing these scenes, I have been surrounded 
by those sadly-pleasing ghosts of the Past, which 
people the solitude of one to whom the Present can 
hardly be said to exist; and words which I heard 



X 



PREFACE. 



long ago have come back to me with such vivacity that 
I have not been always able to resist the temptation of 
recording them. Few, alas ! of the persons I have 
ventured to quote are living to receive my apologies. 
Those few will, I trust, if they know of my offence, 
forgive me. They must remember that they, and 
such as they, inspired me with the strong affection 
for their country, the deep interest in her past for- 
tunes, and the indestructible confidence in her future 
greatness, which have found an imperfect utterance 
in these pages. 

My German readers, if I have any, will doubtless 
find many errors in them ; they will find no wilful 
perversions, and I have had too much experience of 
their indulgence to fear that it will be withheld from 
me now. 

I know that it may be objected that the splendid 
display of patriotism herein exhibited led to a very 
incomplete result, and that the remarkable constel- 
lation of men who had rescued their country, were 
incapable of giving to it a government such as its 
heroic sacrifices had deserved. There cannot be a 
more instructive proof that courage and honesty, 
united to the highest intellectual power and culture, 



PREFACE. 



xi 



do not suffice to qualify men for political action. The 
Germans had been too long confined to the domain 
of speculation, which is beset by no obstacles, and 
circumscribed by no limits, to be fit for the com- 
bined action in which a man finds himself hedged in 
on every side by limitations, and compelled to in- 
numerable concessions; and in which that object so 
mortifying to human pride, some qualified and pos- 
sible good, is all that can be attained. 

Even now the Genial is too much the national idol ; 
and a more dangerous presiding deity of statesmen 
can hardly be imagined. To its worshipers, perse- 
verance in a definite course is "Starrheit" (rigidity), 
and a concentration of the views on certain fixed 
and practicable objects, narrowness. The mixture of 
violence and feebleness, of boundless pretensions and 
pitiable short-comings, to which 1848 gave birth, 
showed but too clearly that the propensity to blind 
imitation, and the utter disdain of the Possible, 
which characterized Germany formerly, were not 
yet extinct. Change of habits, especially habits of 
thought, is a slow operation; but the manly spirits 
and high intelligences of Germany will assuredly 
in time devote themselves to the practical service 



Xll 



PREFACE. 



of their Country, and secure to her a government 
worthy of men who freed themselves from a foreign 
yoke. 

I have expressed in the text, but I am anxious to 
repeat, my earnest hope that the pictures of a con- 
quering army and a foreign domination which make 
up a considerable part of my fourth chapter, may not 
be thought to be given in any spirit of hostility to 
the French people. Fortunately I cannot now be 
suspected of pandering to national antipathy, since 
that has given place to more rational and generous 
sentiments ; and if I had written under the guidance 
of personal feelings, I could have expressed no other 
than the admiration, attachment, and gratitude, in- 
spired by my own knowledge and experience of 
France. It happens that, in the great Drama be- 
fore us, the corrupting part of conqueror and irre- 
sponsible master is the one in which we view the 
French. That part no people has ever acted without 
exhibiting the worst qualities of our nature. The 
display of these qualities was never made on a wider 
scale, nor on a more lofty stage, than in the subjuga- 
tion of Germany ; but we have only to look to the 
conduct of the English (till within the last thirty 



PREFACE. 



Xlll 



years) in Ireland, or the conduct of the Austrians in 
Italy, to see that no people can occupy such a posi- 
tion without incurring the hatred of the subjugated, 
and the severest disapprobation of all good men. 

In disclaiming all antipathy to the French, how- 
ever, I have not the least intention of disclaiming 
the utmost aversion to the man who made that high- 
spirited and amiable people 

" His instruments of death and tools of war 

who flattered all the worst, and stifled all the best 
parts of their nature, and turned their marvellous 
talents and aptitudes into channels immediately de- 
structive to others, and permanently injurious to 
themselves. A country so ruled and so occupied as 
France was during the reign of Napoleon, is drained 
of the political ability and vigour which render a na- 
tion the firm and temperate mistress of her own fate, 
the maker and maintainer of her own institutions. 

I cannot help quoting the remarkable words which 
cheered the constant and prophetic spirit of a Ger- 
man patriot in the darkest period of his country's 
ruin : — " Hapta, sed trepida manu obtinentur scep- 
tra ; omnis in ferro salus est. Quod civibus tenetur 



xiv 



PREFACE. 



invitis solummodo strictus tuetur ensis. Ubi non 
adest pudor, neque cura juris, nec pietas fidesque, 
hand stabile regnum est"*." 

S. A. 

Weybridge, May 30, 1854. 



# Seneca. Written by Count Minister in the margin of his Me- 
moirs, in 1806. 



GERMANY, 

AT THE 

CLOSE OE THE LAST CENTURY. 



The authors of the works which gave occasion to 
the following pages * were, in their day, among the 
most popular female novel-writers of Germany, and 
some of their productions are still held in estima- 
tion. Madame Schopenhauer also published travels 
in France, Belgium, and England, and a little work 
of some merit on old German art, entitled 'Van 
Eyck and his Contemporaries/ 

* Jugendleben und Wanderhilder. Yon Johanna Schopen- 
hauer. (Recollections of my Youth and Wanderings. By Jo- 
hanna Schopenhauer.) 2 vols. Brunswick, 1839. 

Zeitbilder — Wien in der letzten Halfte des AcMzehnten Jdhr- 
Jiunderts. Yon Caroline Pichler. (Sketches of Bygone Times — 
Yienna in the Latter Half of the Eighteenth Century. By Caro- 
line Pichler.) Yienna, 1839. 



B 




2 



MADAME SCHOPENHAUER. 



This lady's life was a varied and eventful one. It 
was her lot to live through, and partly to witness, 
some of the greatest events and the most porten- 
tous changes of modern times. Her infancy was 
troubled by the dismay spread through her native 
city by the dismemberment of Poland. Then came 
the American war, which excited such intense 
sympathy throughout Europe, and stirred up that 
spirit by which it is still agitated. Her first visit 
to Paris was during the mutterings of the storm 
which soon burst over France. She was present at 
Versailles the last time Louis XVI. and his unfor- 
tunate Queen were permitted to celebrate the Fete 
de St. Louis. She saw the last gleam of their set- 
ting sun. She lived for some years in Hamburg, 
whence, after the death of her husband, she re- 
moved to Weimar. She had not been there a fort- 
night when the battle of Jena fell like a thunder- 
bolt upon Germany. She has left a circumstantial 
and lively account of the scenes of which she was an 
eyewitness at that terrible moment. At Weimar she 
lived in the closest intimacy with Goethe; and her 
house was the resort of the eminent persons who were 
attracted to that remarkable court. 

Unfortunately, from the year 1789, the whole of 
this eventful history exists only in brief notes and frag- 



MADAME PICHLER. 



3 



ments. At the age of seventy-two she sat down to 
put her c Recollections' into regular form and order ; 
but she had got little beyond the period of her early 
marriage, when her hand was stopped by a sudden 
but placid death. The last incident recorded in them 
is the arrival, at Danzig, of the news of the destruc- 
tion of the Bastille. Her daughter"*, upon whom de- 
volved the duty of publishing these Memoirs, chose 
rather to give them in their fragmentary form, than 
to fill up the chasms from her own knowledge of her 
mother's history ; and though such a work could never 
fall into more competent hands, we admire the good 
taste which influenced her decision. She has added 
nothing but the few words absolutely necessary to 
explain the circumstances under which the book was 
given to the world. 

Madame Pichler's work also consists of Reminis- 
cences. True, however, to her vocation as a novel- 
writer, she has strung her amusing c Sketches' of the 
society of Vienna at the end of the last century, on 
a thread of story. This detracts from the air of truth 
which they would otherwise have; w T hile, as the story 
itself is of the feeblest texture, it adds nothing to the 

* Since the above was written Adele Schopenhauer has followed 
her mother to the grave. What she has left in writing gives no idea 
of the acuteness and originality of her conversation, nor of the extent 
of her acquirements. 

B 2 



4 



SOCIAL CHANGES AND 



interest. The scenes she describes lose the character 
of a report of an eyewitness, which is the greatest 
merit such a work can possess. Madame Pichler 
is inferior to her northern contemporary in many 
respects, but especially in the candour which ought 
to preside over all comparisons of different ages or 
countries. She is more prejudiced in favour of the 
r good old times/ and more apt to lament over the 
degeneracy of modern manners. 

It is, doubtless, extremely difficult to compare the 
amount of the changes wrought in the aspect of so- 
ciety in any given periods or lapses of time; since 
the mutations which lie nearest to us are far more 
obvious and distinct than those which blend in the 
vapoury distance behind us. Perhaps, therefore, 
every generation of men that has walked the earth 
has thought, as we do, that never were the traces 
of former things so quickly effaced ; never were the 
thoughts and habits, the works and ways of men sub- 
jected to so complete and rapid a change as during 
the period embraced by their own memory, or trans- 
mitted to them with almost the distinctness and viva- 
city of actual observation, by the lips of their parents 
or other immediate predecessors on the high road of 
life. Few inquiries can, we think, be more attractive 
than that here suggested ; in the first place, as to the 



THEIR CHRONICLERS. 



5 



facts ; in the second, as to the causes which retard or 
accelerate such changes, or affect their nature for 
good or for evil. To those who believe in the gradual 
progress of the human race, and in the possibility of 
eradicating some of the errors and prejudices most 
pregnant with evil, it is one of the most profoundly 
interesting : to those of a different way of thinking, 
or to the still greater number who do not think at 
all, it is one of the most amusing. We are therefore 
extremely grateful to the aged who, before they quit 
the world, will take the trouble to tell us how it 
looked when they opened their eyes upon it ; espe- 
cially if they write in a cheerful, ungrudging, and 
unprejudiced spirit, which does not discolour the 
present, because the eyes that behold it are dim with 
age. 

It appears to us that this is a service which women 
are especially fitted and called upon to perform. 
They are gifted with the delicacy of tact which en- 
ables them to seize the shades of character, and to 
recognize the outward indications of what is passing 
within; and this peculiarity of their organization is 
kept in perpetual exercise by the necessities of their 
subordinate and dependent position. 

Society is so much the province of women, that it 
seems as if they were the natural and proper historians 



6 



WHAT IS PROGRESS? 



of its changes, — changes on which, so much of their 
own happiness depends. Like other historians, too, 
(deserving of the name,) their business would be not 
only to record, but to analyse, to compare, to philo- 
sophize ; to trace results to their causes ; to try with 
an impartial judgement the great cause of the Pre- 
sent and the Past, and to endeavour from the de- 
cision to arrive at some guiding principles for the 
Future. 

Perhaps few of the labours of the historian 
would be more valuable to the cause of human pro- 
gress. Indeed such researches lead us to the very 
heart of the great question, what is progress? and 
till that is satisfactorily settled, all other questions 
are uninteresting, blank, and objectless. For what 
does it signify, that in such an age, this or that coun- 
try was the most powerful, this or that family en- 
throned, or in obscurity ? What avail territorial di- 
visions, military successes, or even political institu- 
tions and physical discoveries, if the heart of man is 
not at peace in his home; if he is enslaved by the 
tyranny of custom ; if his childhood is embittered by 
needless harshness, or prematurely worn out by more 
pernicious excitement ? if woman have no hold on 
any but the lower appetites or the despotic tempers 
of men, and is the spoiled and exacting plaything, 



SOCIAL EPOCHS. 



7 



the useless and fretful clog, or tlie timid,, servile 
drudge of her master ? if the high and the low live as 
enemies? if, in short, life is saddened, or poisoned 
at its core, and dissatisfaction with what is, gnaws at 
the heart of almost all classes of human beings ? 

It is certain that there have been epochs in which 
men seemed little disposed to question Providence, 
or that human providence called Government, as to 
the measure of suffering allotted to them. They 
bore it as they might ; with the sort of acquiescence 
in the Inevitable, which results from absence of 
thought, or with the better resignation inspired by 
faith. There have been other epochs in which the 
hopes of men were high, and they thought they be- 
held the dawn of a new and brighter day. Such, pre- 
eminently, was the period just preceding the French 
Revolution. There have been epochs in which, on 
the contrary, doubt, dissatisfaction, scorn, and despon- 
dency were rife : such, indeed, have naturally followed 
on the former. Men had cheated themselves with 
sanguine dreams, were angry at their self-inflicted 
disappointment, or too impatient at their tardy and 
partial success, even to admit its existence. All these 
great moral and intellectual revolutions are reflected 
by the incidents of social life, as from the thousand 
faces of a prism ; the school, the road, the ball-room, 



8 



ENGLAND AND GERMANY. 



the theatre, nay the very centre and penetralia of do- 
mestic life, are coloured by the prevailing tone. 

The two works before us, with some others to 
which we shall occasionally refer, will enable us, we 
hope, to lay before our readers some curious and 
amusing details illustrative of the tone of thought 
and social phenomena of Germany towards the end 
of the last century. 

The progress made by England in what the French 
call material civilization, — in all that conduces to the 
splendour, comfort, and convenience of physical life, 
— has been so much more rapid than that of the 
nations of the Continent, that fewer remains of the 
domestic life of the last century are to be found 
among us than among any other people. Less than 
half a century has totally changed the habits of our 
middle classes. In Germany, where the change is 
much more recent and partial, an Englishman is still 
continually reminded of the customs and the tradi- 
tions of his childhood, especially if that childhood 
was passed in a provincial town. In the more remote 
parts, we find a state of civilization which we have 
been accustomed to regard as past for ever"*. The 
observant and reflecting traveller meets, with a kind 

* The reader will bear in mind that this was written ten years 
ago. Though still to a great extent true, it is daily becoming less so. 



FllEE CITIES OF THE EMPIRE. 



9 



of delighted recognition, some custom, some saying, 
some implement, dress, or viand — perhaps some sen- 
timent or opinion, for these, too, have their day — of 
which he has heard his parents talk with the fond 
recollection of early years. He finds the garment 
for which his mother's hoards were ransacked; and 
which, once the dress of the higher classes, is now 
become the distinctive costume of a retired peasantry 
not yet infected with the rage for imitation. He 
will hear with surprise the traditions of his paternal 
house, and the sayings of his ancient nurse. In one 
district, he will find the undoubting simple faith of 
his forefathers ; in another, the feudal attachment to 
the immediate lord, or the blind and affectionate loy- 
alty to the hereditary ruler, for which he must look 
through a long vista of centuries at home. In this 
or that free city, he will see the coarse substantial 
comfort, and the strict adherence to the manners and 
pleasures of his class, which once characterized our 
citizen. He will see in operation what to him is ex- 
tinct, and will be able, in some degree, to estimate 
what society has gained or lost by the change. 

It would not be easy to point out a field in which 
so rich a harvest of curious and amusing traditions 
of this sort might still be gleaned, as in the Free Im- 
perial cities of Germany. Their political importance 

B 3 



10 KOLN AND NURNBERG. 

is gone, or at least changed ; but there are vestiges 
enough remaining to show what they once were. \Te 
have often wondered that, in learned and industrious 
Germany, no one has undertaken a history of these 
remarkable communities. — exhibiting their quaint 
customs, as well as their political and municipal in- 
stitutions, To particularize only two of these cities, 
— Koln, whose Koinan origin and ecclesiastical go- 
vernment form two curious substrata to its strongly- 
marked burgher character and its sturdy democratic 
spirit : and Xiimberg. the younger sister of Venice, 
whose institutions she copied, as far as national differ- 
ences would permit, and whose Geschlechter (t/entes, 
or patrician families" 1 affected to tread in the footsteps 
of the merchant princes of the south. 

In the former city are to be found the descendants 
of the sturdy bourgeoisie which once drove out the 
nobles, and good Catholics as they were' 1 would not 
allow their sovereign Archbishop to sleep within their 
walls, still carrying on a quiet but dogged contest 
with the Ehineland aristocracy. The democratical 
spirit, partly transmitted to them by their ances- 
tors, partly, no doubt, the result of their contact 
with France, has probably led the more ignorant 
writers of that country into their confident mistakes, 
as to the love of the people for French domination. 



NURNBERG. 



11 



Many curious proofs of the force and tenacity of the 
municipal character might be found in Koln. And 
in social life,, while the wealthier citizens enjoy their 
well- stored tables and joyous amusements, without 
the smallest desire to intrude themselves into the 
ranks of the nobles"^; while they retain much of the 
coarse joviality and sturdy independence of their 
forefathers, the people have not lost their southern 
taste for out-of-door shows and amusements, their 
singular talent for decoration, their hearty familiar 
manners, or their jocular temper. Koln was one 
example, among m any, of the old saying, " U liter 
dem Krummstab ist gut wohnen" — (It is good living 
under the Crozier.) 

And indeed the government of the Ecclesiastical 
Electors was liberty itself compared to that of the 
civic oligarchy of Niirnberg. This was so oppressive 
and arrogant, that the tempest which swept it away, 
together with crowns and diadems, was hailed as a 

# In England, classes are so blended, and the shades which divide 
them are so imperceptible, that we have lost all notion of the pride of 
the citizen as distinguished from, and opposed to, that of the noble. 
But in Koln I found it still living. I knew a case in which a 
brilliant and unexceptionable offer of marriage was refused by a 
girl of high mercantile race, solely on the ground that the suitor was 
noble. Her parents did not coerce her; but she thought, as they did, 
that it was lowering the dignity of the class to which she belonged, 
to match out of it. 



12 



PATRICIANS OF NURNBERG. 



deliverer. The traveller, who stands amazed before 
the matchless treasures of art with which the patrician 
families encircled their city ; who looks at the gor- 
geous windows placed by the piety of the Hallers, the 
Beheims, the Tuchers, the LofFelholzers, and the Holz- 
sclmhers, in her beautiful churches • who sees himself 
surrounded on every side by traces of their antiquity, 
their munificence, and their taste, feels the melancholy 
with which fallen glory inspires every generous mind. 
There is an exquisite portrait of one of the Holz- 
schuher family, painted by Albrecht Diirer in 1526, 
which, by the courtesy of the present head of that 
most ancient house, is shown to strangers. When we 
stood before it, and thought that then — more than 
three centuries ago — the Holzschuhers were already a 
time-honoured race ; that, in the year 1291, Herdegen 
Holzschuher was elected to the seat in the Senate or 
Supreme Council, which his descendants, in unbroken 
line, filled down to the dissolution of the Germanic 
Empire ; when we turned over the vellum pages con- 
taining the effigies and armorial illustrations of these 
potent and reverend Councillors, we fell unwittingly 
into a fit of veneration for purity and antiquity of 
descent, unworthy of Englishmen, justly proud of the 
mixed blood and confused heraldry of their own aris- 
tocracy. We were ready to do homage to the modest 



CIVIC OLIGARCHY. 



13 



and blooming daughter of the ancient race, who with 
simple courtesy placed this authentic record of a long 
line of ancestors before us, as to a princess of high 
and august lineage. 

But the smallest inquiry into the condition of the 
people under this oligarchy soon dissipates all senti- 
mental regrets. No sympathy with the fallen for- 
tunes of individuals can prevent our rejoicing in the 
overthrow of a tyranny the more intolerable from 
its proximity. We have heard an aged Niirnberger 
contrast the haughtiness and morgue of his former 
masters, who never suffered their servants to address 
them without the magnificent title of e Hochfreiherr- 
licher Herr/ with the plain habits and easy manners 
of their present Sovereign. It reminded us of the 
naif wonder expressed by Madame Schopenhauer, 
then fresh from her free city, and full of republican 
pride, at seeing the young reigning Duke of Meck- 
lenburg- Schwerin take out a flower-girl to dance in 
the public walks at Pyrin out. "What," exclaims 
she, " would the Danzigers say if their reigning Bur- 
germeister were to demean himself so in public ?" 

In later times, arbitrary and rapacious exactions 
were added to the insolent domination of the here- 
ditary senate of Niirnberg. It had no hold on the 
popular sympathies, and its fall is spoken of without 



14 



CIVIC CUSTOMS. 



regret. In Niirnberg, therefore, we must seek not so 
much the peculiar stamp impressed on the popular 
character, as the recollections connected with its pic- 
turesque streets, and with the domestic habits of its 
inhabitants. How strongly does every house bear the 
stamp of an opulent merchant city, as distinguished 
from the feudal aspect of Prague or Ratisbon ! How 
distinctly do we trace the impression which Italy, then 
the queen of commerce, the nurse of municipal in- 
dependence, had left on the minds of these travelled 
burghers ! We have seen a curious letter addressed 
by the patrician citizens of Niirnberg to the senators 
of Venice, requesting a copy of the regulations of an 
orphan institution, which they were ambitious to imi- 
tate. Time and change have swept away both these 
bodies, — the loftier with a ruder and a more desola- 
ting storm, the humbler by a gradual decay. Re- 
tired from the trade which gave them all their im- 
portance, unacknowledged by the old territorial aris- 
tocracy, and disliked by the present new race of 
traders for their pretensions to birth and rank, the 
few remains of the ancient Geschlechter are become, 
as a Niirnberger said to us, " neither fish nor flesh," 
and share the nullity which attends all pretensions, 
the basis of which is wanting or decayed. 

But customs long survive those who institute them. 



HANSE TOWNS. 



15 



In the magnificent church of St. Lawrence may yet 
be seen massive carved oaken chairs, bearing the sym- 
bols of the trades or guilds of the city. In each of 
these sits, on a Sunday, a sworn master (Meister) of 
the trade • before him stands a plate, on which are 
deposited the alms of the congregation. After service, 
each Master carries his contribution into the vestry. 
This is a curious relic of the Zunftwesen (guild-sy- 
stem) which we have never seen noticed. If such are 
the things which strike a passing stranger, what might 
not be told by old inhabitants of the city ? what might 
not be discovered by an inquirer who united know- 
ledge and patience with a love for antiquity, — imagi- 
nation enough to seize the local colour, with fidelity 
enough to render it exactly ? There is no time to lose. 
The French Revolution, which levelled to the dust all 
the tottering edifices of the Middle Ages, already 
dates half a century back, and the living chronicles 
of what remained of antiquity are fast dropping into 
the grave. "Any one/' says Madame Pichler, speak- 
ing of Vienna, "who had gone to sleep in 1790 and 
waked again in 1838, might have thought himself 
transported into another planet; so thoroughly is 
everything altered, — from the greatest to the least, 
from the most intimate to the most superficial." 
We are indebted to Madame Schopenhauer for a 



16 



ENGLISH CITIES. 



very lively and distinct picture of one of the Hanse 
towns, while it still retained its ancient form of com- 
mercial prosperity and its municipal franchises and 
its primitive manners. "We brush the walls with 
our petticoats as Ave read/' said a clever German 
lady to us of Goethe's descriptions of Frankfort in 
the last century. This is no less true of the unpre- 
tending little book before us. In many respects, 
Danzig may doubtless be taken as a sample of the 
class to which it belonged ; though each of those in- 
teresting cities was strongly marked with a character 
of its own. 

The institutions, customs, and manners of these 
great and ancient types of trading cities are peculiarly 
interesting to an Englishman, who can compare them 
with those which not long since existed in his own 
country. The civic life of England, as such, is ex- 
tinct. Municipal institutions remain, but the pomp, 
pride, and circumstance that surrounded them are 
gone. What is more, the spirit that inspired them 
is extinct. Civic honours are become nearly ridicu- 
lous, and civic customs have lost their significance. 
In London indeed the Lord Mayor's show is kept 
up — as a show ; but in other corporate towns many 
antique and traditional pageants, and peculiar cus- 
toms, have been abolished. 



NORWICH "GUILD." 



17 



Who that saw a Norwich, guild twenty years ago, 
does not remember Snap ? — as necessary an appen- 
dage to the mayor as his gold chain— the delight and 
terror of children, the true representative of the dragon 
slain by St. George, patron of the city. The monster 
used to be borne,, like a barbarian monarch in a Ro- 
man triumph, at the heels of the civic power,, opening 
its wide and menacing jaws, with no more felonious 
intent, indeed, than the reception of the halfpence 
which it was the touchstone of infant courage to put 
into that blood-red and fearful gulf. These gifts were 
the perquisites of the inner man, the spiritus rector, 
who walked under the scaly hide, flourished the long 
forked tail, and pulled the string which moved the 
dreadful head and jaws. The religious significancy 
of Snap had been lost for ages. The protestant and 
prosaic people saw in him nothing but a child^s toy ; 
the enlightened thought such toys absurd and dis- 
gusting — and he is no more. With him are gone 
the Whifflers, the last depositories of an art so long 
forgotten beyond the walls of the venerable city, that 
commentators on Shakspeare were at a loss for the 
meaning of the word. Their gay dress of blue and 
red silk, the wondrous evolutions of the glittering 
swords which they whirled in the faces of the half 
frightened crowds tossed into the air and caught with 



IS 



ENGLISH CITIES 



dead and has left no heir, the office is abolished, the 

These things had become shadows, and like shadows 
they ha^e departed. But an equal and more impor- 
tant change has taken place in the social and domestic 
character of nor provincial towns. They are all now 



L; 



Einerhir Pithy ye 
fered essentisdiv fro: 



icr 



and credit, to whom the lower classes looked np with 
deference. They filled the civic offices, and never 
relincudshed the honoured rirle of " Air. Justice/' 
which the highest of these octrees eourerred. The 



er forms of commer- 
paternal city was an 



ENGLAND AND GERMANY. 



19 



event. They were the travelled beans who imported 
foreign airs and foreign fashions. They dressed and 
danced and wore their swords with the newest grace. 
But they soon settled down into the habits of their 
fathers, and, in one city we have heard of might be 
seen every day at noon sitting in a row on a low 
church-wall opposite to a noted tavern, taking a glass 
of sherry " as a whet/' and discussing the politics of 
the greater or smaller state. 

The more we go back to the recollections of what 
we heard in our childhood from our fathers, the 
nearer do we approach to the manners of Germany ; 
in many respects, to those of the present day. — 
in more, to those existing at the end of the last, 
and the beginning of the present century in that 
country. The Germans are generally unaware of 
the existence of such resemblances. They take their 
idea of England solely from what they have read of 
London, or from the falsest of all guides, novels. It 
has often happened to us, when describing the early 
hours, the simple methodical habits, and the primi- 
tive domestic festivities of English country towns 
half a century ago, to be interrupted with a general 
exclamation, "But it is not England that you are 
describing ?" Fortunately, or unfortunately, for her, 
Germany is embarked on the same stream with our- 



20 



TIES OF KINDRED. 



selves, and will be hurried along by the same current ; 
but there are many causes which will render her pro- 
gress less rapid than ours, and we may for years 
continue to find, especially in her remoter districts, 
traces of former times which have long been effaced 
at home. 

The similarity we speak of is, of course, subject 
to large deductions for national character and pe- 
culiarities. Thus, on comparing the domestic life of 
the two countries, we remark that the ties of blood 
had a force in Germany, which they had lost, or 
never possessed, in this country, unless indeed we in- 
clude Scotland in our retrospect. We do not make 
the comparison to the disadvantage of England. The 
obligations of kindred have been made a pretext, 
often a justification, for as many base and unjust 
acts as any set of motives whatsoever. The morality 
of women has especially been contracted and per- 
verted by it. With an ordinary mother, as with a 
thorough- going sectarian, all means are good that 
lead to the desired end — the prosperity or fancied 
happiness of her children. There is no immorality 
like that which is practised with a quiet, nay with 
a complacent conscience ; and the permanent in- 
terests of mankind are thus often sacrificed to the 
" duty of providing for one's family." 



CLAN-MORALITY. 



21 



Heinrich Steffens"*, who was nearly a contemporary 
of Madame Schopenhauer, has some remarks on the 
decline of this clan-morality, which are worthy of 
notice. Speaking of a friend of his father, he says, 
"He belonged to a class of men who were more 
common in the last century, and in the quiet orderly 
habits of life which then prevailed, than now. Even 
distant relations held together. Classes, trades, fa- 
milies segregated themselves from the mass ; and it 
was thought fair and reasonable, nay even a duty, 
for each of these separate sets or bodies to strive 
to gain an advantage for itself. It cannot be said 
that the State (or, as we should say, the public) 
was designedly cheated by this system : it hardly 
could be said to exist, nobody thought of it, for even 
the rulers of nations were mainly moved by their 
personal interests. Frederic the Great shone forth 
in the character of a true king ; Joseph II. tried to 
imitate him ; but these examples were rare. An ho- 
nest and active man who had to provide for a large 
family might therefore very well regard it as his duty 
to gain every advantage he could for all the members 
of it, near and remote. The most determined nepot- 
ism had become a principle." 

* Was icli erlebte. Aus der Erinnerung niedergeschrieben. Yon 
Heinrich Steffens. Breslau, 1840. 



22 



PARENTAL AUTHORITY. 



The deference paid, externally at least, to parents 
or heads of families, was certainly greater, even in 
England, a century ago than it is now. We our- 
selves can recollect the daughters of a country gen- 
tleman of old family, who never entered or left the 
room in which their mother was sitting without a 
low curtsey at the door. But we believe at no time 
was it comparable to that exacted in some other 
countries. The universal spirit of freedom, the in- 
dependent manners of our public schools, the wide 
range for enterprise presented by our insular position 
and colonies, rendered it impossible to enforce such 
authority over young men; while the peculiar con- 
struction of our aristocracy, by annihilating the rules 
of equal-blooded (ehenbiirtig) alliances, placed mar- 
riage upon a totally different footing from that on 
which it rested (and to a certain extent still rests) in 
France and Germany; and conferred upon both sexes 
a freedom and independence of choice and action in 
the most momentous event of their lives, which na- 
turally reacted upon their whole character. 

As an illustration of the patriarchal authority ex- 
ercised in Germany even within the nineteenth cen- 
tury, we shall give our readers a Danzig scene, de- 
scribed to us by an eyewitness*^. "Not more than a 

* Adele Schopenhauer. Vide p. 3. 



"familiengericht" IN DANZIG. 23 



quarter of a century ago/' said she, " there existed in 
every principal family of that city a family tribunal 
(Familiengerichf) , to which every member was amen- 
able, and over which the head of the family presided. 
When a young girl, I accompanied my mother on a 
visit to the city of her fathers, and was taken to be in- 
troduced to this awful assembly. We went in full 
dress, and found the old man of eighty seated in the 
Grossvaterstuhl* at the top of the room, and the other 
members arranged in a semicircle on either side, ac- 
cording to age and precedence. I was presented by my 
mother, and welcomed as one of themselves, though 
a stranger. I made my obeisance, and we took our 
seats. Shortly after, two very young men of the 
family were called up by the patriarch, and, in pre- 
sence of the whole company, severely reprimanded 
for some misdemeanour — I think it was getting into 
debt. They stood perfectly abashed, and pale as 
death. Their parents sat by, scarcely less so, but not 
daring to interpose a word in their behalf. The re- 
buke ended, they were dismissed/' Does not this 
appear more like a scene in the tent of an Arab 

# Grandfather' s-chair, — Easy- chairs were unknown. The only sort 
of arm-chair was called GrrossvatersiuM, and was exclusively reserved 
for the dignity and the feebleness of age. Even now, this name is 
commonly applied to easy-chairs, which are lamentably rare in Grer- 
many. 



24 madame schopexhauer's recollections. 



Sheik, than in the house of an inhabitant of a great 
trading city in our own clays ? But if such was the 
influence of the idea of kindred over the minds of 
citizens, what might it be expected to be over those of 
noble descent ? In some of the noble families of Ger- 
many, we have heard, something like it still exists; 
and. in cases of mesalliance, a man is sometimes com- 
pelled to change his name, and to relinquish his claim 
to be considered a member of the family. 

But the dire restraints and obligations imposed by 
noble blood ; the degree to which individual character, 
tastes, and affections are sacrificed to the preserving 
of its current pure and unmingled ; the advantages 
and disadvantages of an aristocracy of mere birth, 
with whom the people can never mix and never sym- 
pathize — having no root in the inferior classes, and 
no independent political power; as compared with 
those of our own mixed-blooded, wealthy, and puis- 
sant aristocracy, growing out of the people, and send- 
ing down its younger branches again into the parent 
earth to seek strength and sustenance; — these are 
matters too weighty to be discussed here. 

Aladame Schopenhauer introduces her "Recollec- 
tions'"' in the following passage: — 

•* A somewhat weary traveller, but still with fresh 



THE JOURNEY'S END. 



25 



feelings and a vigorous enjoyment of life, I stand on 
the height overlooking the last stage of my journey. 
Once more I look back on the long road I have tra- 
versed; on the lovely valleys in which I have wan- 
dered; on the rugged and thorny paths through 
which I have struggled ; and though the retrospect 
awakens a mingled feeling of joy and sorrow, I am 
well content, on the whole, to have arrived so far on 
my way. 

" Sixty or seventy years ago, before there was even 
a talk of ckaussees or railroads, life glided or crept 
on as slowly and quietly as the traveller's carriage 
through the deep sands of north Germany : after en- 
during a few inevitable jolts, one arrived, half-asleep, 
at the goal prescribed to all. In the real as well as the 
figurative sense, how utterly is everything changed, 
during the period in which the larger half of my ex- 
istence has fallen ! Life, as well as travelling, goes 
on with threefold rapidity. . . . Whether the travel- 
lers will have as much to tell on their return home, as 
their more slow-moving predecessors, is doubtful : it 
is at least to be hoped that they cannot bring back 
less information than most of the English tourists 
who now crowd the highways. 

Ci To narrate ! the favourite amusement of age ! And 
why not ? c That every fool nowadays has his own 



26 



from 1775 to 1837. 



history to tell, is not one of tlie smallest plagues of 
these evil times/ sighed Goethe once, when he was 
condemned to listen to the long stories of a worthy 
person • and this has made me deliberate ; hut it is 
easier to lay down a dull book than to turn a tire- 
some talker out of your house." 

The venerable reciter probably thought, as we do, 
that Goethe' s lament did not apply to a lively and 
faithful record of events and objects, but to the effu- 
sions of restless vanity — the confessions of what no- 
body is interested in hearing, or ought to hear — with 
which the public is now so often regaled. 

" Since the sullen peace which succeeded the Seven 
Years' War," she continues, "my life has fallen in 
most eventful times. From the revolt of the Ame- 
ricans in 1775, to this present 22d of January, 1837, 
on which the acquittal of Prince Louis Bonaparte is 
the latest piece of news, I have had ample time and 
opportunity to observe what is worthy not only to be 
remembered, but recorded. I will try then to sketch, 
with slight but accurate touches, a portrait of the 
times in and with which I have lived, — those vener- 
able times, whose manners and usages now appear to 
lie as far behind us as if they were divided from us by 
centuries. I will give the truth, the pure truth, with- 
out any admixture of fiction ; but I shall not trouble 



A DANZIG MERCHANT. 



27 



the reader with the details of my own life, which 
can interest only the few who are attached to me. I 
shall spare the world the history of my love affairs 
[Herze7is-Angelegenheiten) . To affirm that I have had 
none, were as nseless as it were silly — for who wonld 
believe me V y It was as usual, as the old song says, — 

" A bisserl Liab un a bisserl Treu, 
Un a bisserl Falschheit war och mit dabei." 

Johanna Troziener, such was her maiden name, 
was born in the year 1766, on the shores of the Bal- 
tic, in the then free city of Danzig, of which her 
father was an eminent merchant. The portraits of 
her father and mother, and their two faithful servants, 
Adam and Kasche, are drawn with great vivacity, 
though in few words. We quote the following pas- 
sage for the sake of one remark in it : — " My father," 
says she, ce was a man of violent temper, but a cer- 
tain oldfashioned gallantry to the sex prevented his 
ever forgetting himself in his behaviour towards my 
mother. This feeling is now so completely out of 
fashion, that my readers will hardly understand what 
I mean by it. It extended even to us, his daughters." 
If ever that sort of deferential courtesy to women, as 
women, which went under the name of gallantry, and 
was formerly a distinguishing mark of the breeding 
of a gentleman, was common in Germany, the change 

c 2 



28 



COURTESY TO WOMEN. 



is certainly as great as Madame Schopenhauer repre- 
sents it. It has greatly declined, even in its birth- 
place^ France. In England, if there is but little 
of this shadow of chivalry remaining, it has been 
succeeded, among cultivated people, by an easy and 
equal tone of intercourse ; implying, perhaps, a pro- 
founder and more nattering sort of respect than the 
generous consideration for weakness which lies at the 
bottom of the old gallantry. Men of sense and 
learning in England talk to women without altering 
the matter or manner of their conversation — (sup- 
posing always, of course, that their hearers have 
sense and taste enough to relish such conversation) ; 
without any of the menage mens or the trivial com- 
pliments which imply such profound and almost un- 
conscious contempt for their understandings. From 
what we have seen, and from the tone of German 
literature, it does not appear to us that the women 
of Germany are treated either with the refined po- 
liteness of a former age in France, or with the tone 
of frank, respectful equality— the civility neither of 
condescension nor adoration — which characterizes the 
best society in England. 

On this subject we find the following passage in 
the autobiography of Frederic J acobs^. He was ap- 

* Personalien. Yon Fried. J acobs. Leipzig, 1840. 



MANNERS IN 1785. 



29 



pointed teacher in the Gymnasium at Gotha, in 1785, 
and his remarks apply to that period. 

"At that time, social life had a totally different 
aspect. The fashion of clubs was in its infancy, and 
women were not driven to seek amusement and 
conversation by themselves. Besides a weekly as- 
semblage of the principal families in the town, 
there were frequent little parties in the houses of 
the middle classes, to which the youth of both sexes 
were invited. Every age and each sex found its ac- 
count in them. The old played cards; the young 
amused themselves with music or dancing ; new dra- 
matic works were often read aloud ; proverbs or little 
plays were acted. The tone in these little parties was 
at once polite and lively. The young men gave them- 
selves the trouble to converse agreeably with the wo- 
men, who, on their side, were willing listeners. That 
there was a good deal of falling in love, follows of 
course ; but the eye of the mother watched over her 
daughter, and the salutary constraint thus imposed 
on both parties heightened the charm of their in- 
tercourse, and gave rise to connections less rapidly 
formed, but more enduring, than those which we now 
witness." 

Where such a separation of the sexes, as Jacobs 
deplores, takes place, it is evident either that the men 



30 



SCHOOL LIFE IN DENMARK. 



are impatient, or incapable, of the decorum and cour- 
tesy imposed by female society ; or that the women 
are impatient, or incapable, of such conversation as 
alone can or ought to interest men ; — or perhaps both 
are true. In either case, good manners and good 
conversation cannot exist. The reciprocal endea- 
vour of either sex to recommend itself to the higher 
tastes and qualities of the other, is, we believe, the 
fine, but safe and powerful spring of really good (i. e. 
refined and enlightened) society. 

We find in StefFens's description of his boyhood 
in Denmark a remarkable confirmation of this state- 
ment of Jacobs. 

" The school-life of that time was very favourable 
to study. Primitive simplicity of manners still pre- 
vailed among the middle classes, luxury was wholly 
excluded from domestic life ; clubs had but just 
risen into existence, and were few and humble ; pri- 
vate societies consisted always of both sexes, and 
were enlivened by conversation, moderate play, and 
often, reading ; social intercourse was unconstrained, 
but decorous, and far removed from that indolent, 
slouching ease, which, together with the indispensable 
tobacco-pipe, has scared away women. School-boys 
were not admitted into such societies, and as there 
were no other amusements, they were the fonder of 



A LADY* S EDUCATION. 



31 



school, where alone they found companions. Up to 
my seventeenth year, when I left school, I recollect 
no such diversions as the youth of the present day are 
accustomed to. My acquaintance was confined to a 
few friends; my pleasures consisted in conversation 
with them, and my highest enjoyment was a walk 
with some of them to a neighbouring wood, where the 
fruit Ave carried with us allayed our hunger, and a 
fresh spring under the trees quenched our thirst. We 
never thought of entering an inn or coffee-house/* 

We shall have occasion to revert to the subject of 
the sparing use of excitement at the time we are 
speaking of. The constant administration of stimu- 
lants, which now begins from the cradle, is one of 
the most striking features of the days in which we 
live. 

Madame Schopenhauer describes her mother's edu- 
cation as " that of her time. A few Polonaises on the 
harpsichord, a song or two accompanied by herself, 
and reading and writing sufficient for domestic use, 
formed the sum of her learning. Till the appearance 
of c Sophia's Journey from Memel to Saxony/ she 
had read very little but Gellert's writings; indeed 
his c Swedish Countess/ of most tiresome memory, 
was the only novel she had read." 

Steffens says, that ' Sophia's Journey from Memel 



32 



ENGLISH NOVELS. 



to Saxony* (the very title carries the mind back to the 
days when steam and railroads were not) excited a 
great deal of attention in his childhood, and adds : — 

" When we compare those times with the present, 
it is indeed striking how slender were the means the 
writer had to employ in order to interest and charm 
the reader ; it is equally remarkable how long snch 
simple novels retained the reputation they had once 
acquired. Subsequently, the stimulants which it was 
necessary to apply, in order to make an impression, 
were gradually made stronger and stronger, but, in 
the same proportion, they lost their effect. The more 
the feelings are wrought upon, the more quickly are 
they blunted ; till now, spite of the use of the most 
violent expedients, the book is no sooner read than 
it is forgotten/ 3 

In all the memoirs of the age to which we refer we 
trace the influence of English literature on Germany. 
Richardson* s novels produced a vast impression. It is 
impossible to take up a book referring to this period, 
in which they are not mentioned. Steffens (born 
1773) says "they flooded not only Germany but Den- 
mark/* and ascribes to them a marked increase in 
the refinement of the women Unhappily, however, 
they gave birth to that odious race of sentimental 

* We think we remember a remark of Niebuhr's to the same effect. 



ENGLISH NOVELS. 



33 



novels, which for a long time were believed in Eng- 
land to form the standard literature of Germany. It 
is worth while to undergo the tedium and disgust of 
reading one or tw r o of the most celebrated of them, 
as indications of a certain state of popular taste and 
feeling, which, though no longer existing, has left but 
too perceptible traces in the national character and 
literature. There is an admirable critique of Ja- 
cobins 'Woldeniar/ by Frederic Schlegel, which we 
recommend to any reader who is inclined to know 
more of this form of mental disease. We shall have 
occasion to speak more of it hereafter. 

Among the philosophical and poetical influences 
which determined the direction of his mind, Steffens 
mentions the writers of our own country who seem 
to have formed the oblige English reading of all Ger- 
mans of that age, as Byron and Bulwer do of this : 
the c Vicar of Wakefield/ the ' Sentimental Journey/ 
Young's c Night Thoughts/ and, above all, Shak- 
speare. English novels still form a great part of the 
reading of German young ladies : the reason alleged 
is, that they are the only ones fit for girls to read. 
We are very sensible to the compliment paid to the 
purer taste and morality of our country ; but we must 
be permitted to question whether the knowledge of 
English, so generally diffused in Germany, might not 

c 3 



34 



NEWSPAPERS. 



be turned to better account. Nor are the best of our 
novels those which enjoy most popularity, or are most 
extensively known. We have been frequently sur- 
prised and mortified to witness the enthusiasm for 
English works which appeared to us the most ques- 
tionable in taste or in tendency; while the names 
of Inchbald, Austen, Ferriar, and others, who have 
drawn such delicate and faithful pictures of English 
life, were entirely unknown"*. 

When we spoke of the slow pace at which change 
proceeds in Germany, we ought certainly to have ex- 
cepted all that regards literature. Who that takes up 
a half-yearly Leipzig Catalogue, would believe that 
the men are yet living who remember the state of 
things which Madame Schopenhauer alludes to? Who 
that goes into a German reading-room, and sees the 
innumerable Journals — the Blatter — Leaves, count- 

# Since this was written the character of English novels has un- 
dergone a remarkable and not very agreeable change. I remember 
recommending a very powerful and painful modern novel to a Ger- 
man friend, — one who had lived in an atmosphere of refined criticism. 
" The novel is very clever," she wrote, " but oh, how different from 
the charming, graceful, cheerful novels that used to come to us from 
England ! What has happened to your society, that it can furnish 
or relish such painful views of life?" Formerly, indeed, a novel 
afforded refreshment for the weary spirit, repose for the over- wrought 
brain, relief from the hard and sad realities of life. The appearance 
of one of Scott's novels was hailed as the birth of a new solace and 
joy to the world. The entertainment now very commonly presented 



THE HOUSEHOLD. 



35 



less as those that "strew the brooks in Vallombrosa," 
would believe that, in the year 1788, "the meagre 
blotting-paper journals of the capitals appeared/' as 
C. J. Weber tells us, "at the utmost three times a 
week? The 'Reichs Postreiter' (Courier of the Em- 
pire) was a sort of luxury for the higher classes ; as 
the ' Journal de Leyde/ published in French, was for 
statesmen and politicians. The reading public were 
obliged to wait with eager impatience for a number 
[Heft) of Schlotzer's ' Staats Anzeigen' and 'Brief- 
wechseP (Public Advertiser, and Correspondence or 
Newsletter), or for a new volume of e Nicola? s Travels/ 
in order to enjoy the delight of a little gossip, home 
or foreign.-" 

Madame Schopenhauer gives us a minute descrip- 
tion of her father's household, which is extremely 
vivid and touching. Kasche, the Polish nurse-maid, 

to us consists either of scenes in the Folterkammer — the Rack-cham- 
ber — of human life, researches into the dark and dirty corners of 
our nature, or polemics on political and social questions, disguised 
under the form, and carried on with the unscrupulous exaggeration, 
of fiction. In spite of the vast talent, and the very surprising ac- 
quaintance with the unlovely secrets of our poor nature, which many 
of these novels display, and of the good intentions manifest in others, 
one cannot but deplore such degrading and unfair uses of Art. There 
are moral diseases and deformities which it is the painful duty of 
humanity to explore, and of science to describe ; but it is the glo- 
rious prerogative of Art to ignore them ; it is her beneficent mission 
to carry our thoughts into purer and higher regions. 



36 



THE HOUSEHOLD. 



her songs, her simple lessons of piety, and her de- 
voted attachment to the family of which she felt 
herself an integral member; Adam, the "Maitre 
Jacques" of the household, to whom everything 
was confided, and who provided everything, "even 
to the fat ox, which, according to universal custom, 
was bought and slaughtered in autumn for a winter 
store," are living pictures of old-world fidelity. 
Adam understood and humoured the infirmities of 
his master's temper: he dealt with them as we do 
with the faults of those we love, when parting is out 
of the question; they never occurred to him as a 
reason for leaving the house to which he entirely be- 
longed. "Adam," says our author, "was the only 
one in the house that understood the art of doing 
everything as my father liked ; in return, he now and 
then ventured to speak a word, but never imper- 
tinently, and soon retreated within proper limits. 
'Our master is mad/ soliloquized Adam once, as 
he retreated from a storm which he had suffered to 
burst over his head in silence. ' What do you say, 
Adam ? 9 said my father, whom Adam did not see so 
near him. Adam almost sank on his knees with 
terror, but not a word more passed. They behaved 
as if nothing had happened." The group is com- 
pleted by the no less faithful, but somewhat ludi- 



MASTER AND SERVANT. 37 

crous Moser, the clerk, a genuine "Niirnberger 
Piirger," with his love for politics and his talent for 
story-telling; thrice happy when he could exhibit 
himself on holidays "in his grass-green coat em- 
broidered with gold, his bag- wig, huge rings, and 
paste buckles, covering the whole front of the shoe." 
Such was the household in which our authoress was 
born and grew up; for we need scarcely say that 
with these excellent people there was no thought of 
change. They took root in the soil where they had 
been planted, and shared, in the fullest sense, the life 
and fortunes of their masters. 

There is perhaps no department of social life in 
which manners have undergone a more complete 
revolution throughout Europe than in the relation 
between master and servant. At the time which 
Madame Schopenhauer treats of, the old feudal feel- 
ing, which formed a tie wholly independent of per- 
sonal qualities, and had pervaded the whole of society, ' 
was not yet extinct ; indeed it survived to a much 
later period in the very city she describes"^. 

* Mdlle. Schopenhauer told me that she paid a visit to Danzig 
long after her mother had quitted it, and was attended while 
there by a Polish woman, who had formerly been in the service 
of her family. On her return from balls and parties she inva- 
riably found this woman, at whatever hour, standing in the open 
entrance to the house, with a lantern in her hand, ready to light her 
mistress up the stairs. It was in the depth of a most severe winter, 



38 



AN OLD SERVANT. 



Even vre ourselves can look back on a few vener- 
able specimens of this extinct race ; one especially, 
in the love and reverence of whom we were nurtured. 
He had been rendered completely independent of his 
former masters ; but nothing could have tempted him 
to call his best friends by any other name than that, or 

and the cold in that northern latitude was hardly endurable. 
Mdlle. Schopenhauer expostulated with her. and desired that she 
would not persist hi giving her such painful proofs of devotion. So 
far from being grateful for the consideration which prompted this 
command; she looked hint, and said. ' ; I hope I don't now want to 
be taught my duty. I might hare fallen asleep upstairs. At any 
rate you would have had to wait while I came down. ;; Mdlle. 
Schopenhauer said she was persuaded the devoted creatine would 
have died there without the smallest idea of having been hardly 
treated. I shah scarcely be suspected of regarding this as a desir- 
able, or a tolerable, state of things : but, human himanity being 
what it is. it is quite certain that a connection of any kind which 
is to last only until one of the parties has cause to be displeased 
with the other, will not last long. In the case of children, nature 
has generally provided in the parental relation a store of love which 
is proof against defects and disgusts : and where this is wanting, 
law and public opinion afford security against caprice. In the con- 
jugal relation, human institution and divine command come in aid 
of our impatience, our restless hopes, and exaggerated expectations, 
and relieve us from the burden of a liberty too heavy for man to bear. 
But as matters now stand, what is the bond between master and 
servant ? — a relation so obnoxious to all the chances of passing dis- 
gusts. Here, as in so many of the relations of human society, we 
are in a state of transition. The acquiescence in a certain amount of 
evil, which was produced by authority and tradition, no longer exists : 
and, as yet, the acquiescence which must in time result from reason, 
and from an accurate estimate of the evils attendant on every condi- 
tion of human existence, is not attained. 



AN OLD SERVANT. 



39 



to consider himself as less belonging to them. With 
■what reverential love were those words pronounced 
which many now regard as badges of slavery and hu- 
miliation ! How were all the tnrbnlent and trouble- 
some visits of " my young masters" hailed as a favour ; 
the little cupboard of gilded books and toys (the store 
which for twenty years delighted and amused succes- 
sive generations of children) was opened ; the old 
dog, humble, peaceful, and contented as his master, 
was called in to be tormented or caressed, or accom- 
panied the good old man when the children were per- 
mitted to take a walk with him, " out of the gates/ 3 
We see him now, with the neat brown coat and 
breeches, the grey stockings and silver buckles in the 
shoes, and the close brown wig, come in to wish joy 
at "my young mistress's" wedding, and made, with 
infinite struggles, to sit down and drink a glass of 
wine, with tearful eyes, and wishes, the sincerity of 
which no one doubted. We hear his affectionate wel- 
come to the first grandchild carried to see him, and 
his tranquil moralizing on the rapid passage of time. 
We see his woe-stricken face at his beloved master's 
sufferings, contrasting in the most touching manner 
with the patience with which he bore his own. We 
look back upon the contented monotony of his blame- 
less, peaceful life, almost every joy or sorrow of which 



40 



INDEPENDENCE. 



was drawn from a source entirely beyond tlie sphere 
of his own personal interests ; — and we ask ourselves, 
where are the successors of such men, or what have 
we better and happier in their place ? 

The inquiry into the causes which unite or disunite 
the various classes of society, always one of the most 
interesting in the world, has now assumed a fearful 
importance. On the satisfactory solution of it rests 
the sole chance of stability to the social fabric. It is 
evident that the bonds are most relaxed, ancl yet are 
felt to be most galling, in the most advanced coun- 
tries ; and that impatience of all restraint and of all 
superiority, so far from increasing in the ratio of the 
severity of the restraint, or the degree of the supe- 
riority, is precisely inverted. The sentiment of be- 
longing to another human being, in any sense, or from 
any cause, seems to be becoming more and more in- 
tolerable, and personal independence to be esteemed 
the most indispensable of all possessions. This senti- 
ment lies at the root of a vast proportion of modern 
literature. "Whether it be in favour of human hap- 
piness or not, is a great and weighty question. With- 
out pretending to resolve it, we must admit that, in 
shaking off the ties and obligations which bound them 
to others, men virtually renounce the claims which 
correlate to those obligations, and can, with no sem- 



INDEPENDENCE. 



41 



blance of justice, expect protection or help, where they 
refuse obedience and duty. Thus, women who desire 
to be freed from the marital authority, must be con- 
tent to bear an equal share of the ruder conflict with 
life, and can put forward no claim to marital protection. 
Thus children who emancipate themselves from the pa- 
rental authority, have no right to complain if they 
no longer receive parental care and support ; and ser- 
vants to whom the feeling of belonging to one parti- 
cular household and master is intolerable, can hardly 
look for maintenance or affection when their years of 
activity and usefulness are over. Every connection 
between servant and master, workman and employer, 
is then a mere contract ad hoc, and neither party can 
claim anything beyond his bond. As no expecta- 
tions are either raised or entertained of a provision for 
old age, to be made by the employer, the servant has 
nothing to look to but his own providence, or his own 
rapacity, for an escape from want ; and in the latter 
case, there begins that struggle which, in one shape or 
other, is now the curse of domestic life. The forms it 
takes are endless. While London servants are suborned 
by tradesmen, by whom they are corrupted and whom 
they corrupt; and while London masters and mis- 
tresses, "for quiet's sake/' shut their eyes to their own 
loss and their servants' immorality, German ladies are 



42 



INDEPENDENCE. 



locking up the bread and butter, counting the lumps 
of sugar, and serving out "portions " to their house- 
holds. It is difficult to say which state of things is 
the worst, or has the most depraving effect on the 
characters of all concerned. Where anything of the 
old feeling of belonging to a family subsists, we gene- 
rally find the old respect for the master's property, as 
the common fund out of which all were to be main- 
tained in youth and age, sickness and health. 

We are not advocating this or that state of man- 
ners; we are only stating the fact. It is no doubt an 
evil, that one human being of mature age and intel- 
lect should be dependent on the will of another, and 
we have no doubt that the relaxation of this bond is 
a necessary step in the progress of mankind. But no- 
thing is gained by treating it as an unqualified good, 
or by attempting to underrate the vast evils attendant 
on the present dislocation of society. A return to 
the former constitution being simply impossible, even 
were it desirable, the only reasonable course now is 
to try to regulate the use of independence ; to substi- 
tute for obedience to an individual, obedience to law 
and morality; for attachments to a family, benevo- 
lent dispositions towards society; for narrow views 
of self-interest as connected with the interests of a 
few, an enlarged and enlightened consciousness of the 



MAGDEBURG. DANZIG. 



43 



remote but permanent and inseparable community of 
interests which God has established among his crea- 
tures ; but which is overlooked by their blindness, and 
thwarted by their perversity. 

It is certain that the benefits by which those who 
exerted power and imposed constraint, sought to in- 
demnify the subject and the submissive for their loss 
of independence, were often demoralizing to both. If 
the authority of parents and heads of families was 
more willingly recognized, on the other hand, the 
inferior members were conceived to have claims for 
help and support as against the community, utterly 
inconsistent with good public morality. 

But we must return to Madame Schopenhauer and 
to her native Danzig. 

Every city may be viewed as, in some sort, an ex- 
pression of the character, wants, and tastes of its 
builders, and of the state of society amidst which it 
arose ; and the peculiar character it has received it 
reflects back again on those born within its precincts. 
Even in England a native of Exeter or of Ely is very 
distinguishable from a native of Brighton or of Bir- 
mingham. How much more is this true of the cities 
of Germany, which retain so many of their ancient 
characteristics ! " I had read," says Immermann, 
" Emperor Otho's Charter, granted in the year 940, 



44 



DANZIG c STEPS/ 



for founding the city of Magdeburg. I saw his sta- 
tue on horseback, with the crown on his head, the 
sceptre in his hand, and the imperial mantle on his 
shoulders, standing in the old market. I heard that 
all the roads were measured from that statue; and 
I knew that the fishwives who stand there in rows 
with their tubs and paniers, decorate the pedestal 
with May on the Saturday before TThitsuntide, and 
serve a breakfast to the imperial effigy. I saw him 
he in white marble by the side of his Editha, in the 
choir of the cathedral. These local sympathies grew 
up in the heart of the child with the very sight of 
familiar objects. Each city had its individual history 
and its individual affections 

Madame Schopenhauer might well be attached to 
the striking and peculiar scene of her childhood. 
"The main streets of Danzig/' she says, "are much 
wider than those in any other old town. Two or 
even three carriages might pass abreast between the 
houses, and yet leave room for a commodious foot- 
path; yet the actual room for passage is so small, 
that the most experienced coachmen can hardly 
avoid collision, and the foot-passengers have enough 
to do to escape with whole limbs. The flights of 

* I\Iernorabilien von Karl Immermann. 3 B ancle. Hamburg, 
1840-43. 



EDUCATION. 



45 



steps before all the houses, of which those in Ham- 
burg or Lubeck are but the shadow of a shade, are 
the cause of this strange appearance. I know not how 
to convey an idea of these singular propyl&a, which 
give to the northern city something of a southern cha- 
racter, and in which, during my childhood, a great 
part of the household business was carried on, with an 
openness incredible now, almost as publicly as in the 
street. They are not balconies ; I might almost call 
them spacious terraces, paved with large stones, and 
extending along the front of the house, with broad 
easy steps to the street, from which they are separated 
by a stone parapet. These terraces are divided from 
each other by a wall four or five feet high. The most 
capricious of all rulers, fashion, has taken so many 
despised things under her protection, under the name 
of rococo, — may it please her to watch over the Dan- 
zig steps ! She will hardly find a more grandiose 
piece of rococo. And what an incomparable play- 
place ! So safe, so convenient ! close under the eye 
of the sewing or knitting mother, yet secure from 
scoldings for making a noise." 

But before we proceed with our author's series of 
sketches, we must say a word of her education. It is 
but too true that we are nearly in the dark as to the 
degree to which the character of the man may be de- 



48 



EDUCATION. 



termined by the systematic training of the child ; or 
what are the class of impressions which may be cal- 
culated upon with certainty, as leading to given re- 
sults. Education has hitherto been little better than 
tentative ; nor can it be denied, that if unremitting 
watchfulness seems to have been favourable to some, 
others, who have been left nearly to themselves to 
work out the great problems of life, have shown a 
passion for knowledge and a steadiness of virtue which 
it is perhaps impossible by any extrinsic means to in- 
spire. Such being the obscurity which hangs about 
this most important of all questions, we hail every 
accurate register of the events and impressions of a 
childhood, as an important contribution to the data on 
which any effective system of education can be built. 
It was Madame Schopeiihauer^s singular good fortune 
to be educated chiefly by men, under the eye of her 
mother; — a conjunction of influences the most likely to 
produce pure, sound affections, and a cultivated reason. 
To this was added another privilege, now become ex- 
tremely rare — access to books a above her years." Chil- 
dren who are confined to the society of children, and 
to the reading of children's books, can hardly be other 
than intellectually and morally stunted, if not de- 
formed. The great interests of humanity are never men- 
tioned in their presence. History, wholly disconnected 



THE PRUSSIANS ARE COME ! 



47 



from the present, is to them a mere "lesson." Their 
world lies within the walls of the nursery and the 
school-room, and is entirely factitious ; the real life of 
man never reaches them in any form. Our little he- 
roine, on the contrary, lived with her parents and their 
friends, and saw from her infancy the real and earnest 
side of human things. At seven years old she re- 
ceived the first shock of that great public calamity 
and public wrong, effects of which may be traced 
through her whole history. 

One morning she was surprised by an unwonted 
bustle in her father's house and in the streets, and 
alarmed at the consternation which marked every 
face. "'Sit still, dress your doll prettily, and give 
her her breakfast, but make no noise/ said Kasche, 
leading my sister and me to our play-corner. c Ka- 
sche, dear Kasche, we will be as still as mice; but do 
tell us what is the matter, I am so afraid/ ' Matter 
enough ! but you children don't understand it. The 
Prussians are come in the night, — so be good chil- 
dren/ added Kasche, and left us. Had she said a 
lion is come, a tiger, a bear, I should have con- 
nected some idea with it, — but the Prussians ! I un- 
derstood not what she meant ; but this only increased 
my fear." 

Such were our author's recollections of the day 



48 



AMERICAN WAR. 



which commenced the ruin of her paternal city — the 
destruction at once of its municipal freedom and its 
commercial prosperity; the day of the investment of 
the immediate neighbourhood of Danzig by the troops 
of the great Frederic. 

The impression which this event left on her infant 
mind was never effaced. We shall presently see the 
traces of it in her choice of books, her sentiments and 
opinions; it almost seems to have determined her 
choice of a husband. 

In the numerous German Memoirs, Reminiscences, 
etc., in which we have sought for information, we are 
struck with unanimity on one point, — the mighty 
impression made on all minds by the American war. 
This event seems to have startled Europe to its re- 
motest bounds and its obscurest recesses. All these 
writers, however distant the places of their birth, how- 
ever different the circumstances under which they 
lived, refer to this as one of the most vivid and inde- 
lible impressions of their childhood. What Goethe 
says of it must be familiar to many of our readers. 
He, however, was a native of a great and much-fre- 
quented commercial city : but in the remote and tran- 
quil seclusion of the small town of Norway inhabited 
by Steffens, or (as we learn from Madame Pichler) 
even in the gay, contented, and loyal Vienna, the 



AMERICAN CHARACTER. 



49 



hearts of men were stirred with strange hopes and 
lofty aspirations for their race. We must not stop to 
ask how these have been fulfilled, in the land whither 
freedom and justice were to retreat from oppressed 
and corrupted Europe. To those who estimate hu- 
man progress by miles of railroad and bales of cotton, 
or by rapid increase of territory and population, the 
result is probably satisfactory; but those who wish 
to retain any hope of the emancipation of mankind 
from the tyranny of base prejudices and evil passions, 
— of their elevation above sordid and short-sighted 
interests, — their obedience to justice, reason, honour, 
and humanity, must look forward into more distant 
regions and into a remoter futurity. If a people 
neither coerced by foreign domination nor by internal 
tyranny, neither cramped by nature nor stinted by 
fortune, can attain to no higher moral development 
than that which America now exhibits, whither is the 
philanthropist to look, or what are the circumstances 
which will justify his hopes *? Unfortunately, when 
individuals or nations are regarded as the represen- 
tative of principles, their crimes or vices dishonour 
not only themselves but those principles; and it is 
thus the reign of fraud in America, like the reign of 

* This was written at the moment when the non-payment of debts 
had just been consecrated as a principle in the United States 3 under 
the now familiar name of Bepudiation. 

D 



50 



AMERICAN WAR. 



terror in France, puts -weapons into the hands of the 
enemies of free institutions, and reduces their cham- 
pions to silence, if not to despair. 

"My father/' says Steffens, "loved conversation, 
and when he returned from his patients he was gene- 
rally in the best humour, and very communicative to us 
children ; thus we became acquainted with the most 
important military events which set Europe in a stir ; 
— the consequences of the American war, the war in 
the Mediterranean, the events in the island of Ma- 
jorca, the remarkable siege of Gibraltar, the enor- 
mous armaments of the French, and the gallant 
defence of the rock by Elliot, were among the ear- 
liest scenes of war which excited the interest of the 
boy. I was also fully acquainted with the causes and 
objects of the American war, and took the liveliest 
interest in a people which struggled so bravely for 
its freedom. Washington and Franklin stood pre- 
eminent among the great men of that time. There 
were few young men of spirit in our peaceful land 
who were not attached to the American cause, and 
my sympathy was stimulated, if not first excited, by 
my father's opinions. When we consider the cha- 
racter of this war, — by which the lighted spark was 
thrown, not only into France, but into all the nations 
of the civilized world, — it is not uninteresting to ob- 



AMERICAN WAR. 



51 



serve how that spark was silently tended in the tran- 
quil bosoms of the families of remote and peaceful 
lands, and how the earliest and most vivid concep- 
tions of children blended their own destiny with the 
future fates of Europe. I have still a lively recollec- 
tion of the day on which the treaty of peace, which 
announced the victory of struggling freedom, was ce- 
lebrated in Helsingor and in the roadstead. It was 
a beautiful day ; the roads were filled with the vessels 
of all nations, and among them, some ships of war. 
In a state of the most eager excitement we watched 
for the break of morning; the ships were all dressed; 
the long streamers and pennants fluttered in the 
breeze, and the masts were covered with flags. This 
unusual decoration, the thunder of the ships of war, 
and even of every merchant-vessel that had a few 
guns, the joyous crews that crowded the decks, made 
it a festival to us all. My father had invited a few 
guests. The triumph of the Americans, the cause of 
popular freedom, was eagerly discussed, and a sort of 
presentiment of the great events which were to pro- 
ceed from this triumph floated before the minds of 
the party. It was the lovely and cheerful dawn of 
the bloody day of history. 

" My father tried to explain to us clearly the sig- 
nificancy of this day of rejoicing; and while the pro- 

d 2 



52 



BOOKS FOR CHILDREN. 



sperity of the new republic was drunk, the Danish and 
American flags were hoisted together in our garden. 
We made a bonfire, had our glasses filled with punch, 
and were allowed to hurrah as loud as our elders, 
which delighted us not a little.^ 

In Madame Schopenhauer's ninth year, we find 
her listening, in like manner, with intense interest to 
all the details of the American war, which had just 
broken out. " Washington and his associates/' says 
she, " were my heroes, and rivalled Mucius Sceevola 
and Cincinnatus in my affections." With the latter 
she had become acquainted in a translation of Tlollin, 
which she read by stealth in corners, " often in the 
wood-loft under the roof. Four thick octavo volumes ! 
With what ardour, with what indescribable interest, 
did I read them, and read them again, and, as a par- 
ticular treat, turn to my favourite passages'* !" The 

* We remember hearing an Englishwoman of the last generation, 
whose intellectual qualities were only inferior to her moral (if indeed 
we can separate what had the same stamp of energy, justness, and 
greatness) say, that the earliest book she remembered being interested 
in was Rapin's ' History of England.' Her sister, two or three 
years older than herself, read it to her aloud : it was their free, un- 
bidden choice. We imagine the two little girls seated on low stools, 
the elder with the huge folio on her knees, the younger in all the 
radiant beauty of a golden-haired English child, with her doll in her 
arms, listening with fixed attention, and day after day following the 
driest of historians through his ponderous work. Exquisite and 
true picture, which we commend to any painter who could conceive 



BOOKS FOR CHILDREN. 



53 



successor and rival of Bollin was what she truly 
calls, ee the incomparable Contes de ma Mere V Ore ; — a 
shabby little book, printed on coarse grey paper, the 
clumsy German translation by the side of the original, 
and, prefixed to every story, a little print." " What 
a treasure was this ! Bluebeard, as he was there de- 
picted, seizing his wife by her hair, with a sword in 
his hand twice as long as himself; the discreet Fi- 
netta, the charming Cinderella — how did they all en- 
chant me ! Above all, Puss in Boots, in honour of 
whom the whole volume was christened the Cat-book, 
shared my heart with the heroes of Borne." 

Compare the vivacity of these impressions, the 
awakening of the curiosity, the judgement, the ima- 

it ! he will find no living models for it. In this case, not only an 
intellect and a character of the highest order were developed, but a 
style of writing and speaking distinguished for vernacular purity, 
clearness, and precision, was formed, by the mere access to a library 
composed of the classics of the English language : nothing else 
came in her way. She was taught little (which, with an over-esti- 
mate of what she did not possess, she always unduly regretted), nor 
was she either commanded or forbidden to read anything. She had 
much to do, and little external excitement ; it was presumed that 
reading must be her pleasure, and her father possessed no trash. 
We have quoted an individual case, because we happen to know it 
intimately ; but we have had an insight, less near, but still sufficient 
to corroborate this, into several others, especially among women. 
Nearly all those we have known, who rose much above the average 
of their sex, had pretty nearly a similar mental training, or rather 
growth. — From an article on Children's Books (British and Foreign 
Beview, No. XXXIII.) from the same hand. 



54 



goethe's reading. 



gination, and the affections, with, the effects produced 
by the lifeless skeletons called abridgments; or by 
the mawkish stories of the unnatural puppets called 
good boys and girls. We once heard Tieck say that 
he never would suffer a child's book to come into his 
house while his children were young. Without join- 
ing in this absolute proscription, we must confess 
that, as the sole food of growing minds, they appear 
to us meagre and enfeebling. 

As this is one of the most important points on 
which the present age is at issue with the past, our 
readers will forgive us for quoting one or two exam- 
ples of the kind of reading which formed the best 
minds of Germany in the last generation. " At that 
time/' says Goethe, speaking of his childhood, " there 
were no so-called children's books. The old writers 
had childlike ways of thinking, and found it easy and 
agreeable to communicate what they knew to their 
posterity. With the exception of the ' Orbis Pictus' 
of Amos Comenius, no books of the kind came in our 
way; but the great folio Bible, with prints by Me- 
rian, was frequently turned over. Gothfried's ' Chro- 
nicle/ with engravings by the same master, taught 
us the most remarkable incidents of history ; and the 
' Acerra Philologica' contained all sorts of fables, 
mythologies, and wonders." 



Jacobs' reading. 



55 



To these succeeded Ovid's c Metamorphoses/ Fe« 
nelon's s Telernaque/ ' Robinson Crusoe/ and Anson's 
Voyages • and lastly, that exhaustless mine of enter- 
tainment contained in the VGlksbilcher (People's Books) , 
the great manufactory of which was at Frankfort; where 
countless editions, printed on the coarsest blotting- 
paper, supplied the never-ceasing demand. " We chil- 
dren/' continues Goethe, " had thus the happiness of 
daily finding these precious remains of the Middle 
Ages on an old book-stall, and of becoming possessors 
of them for a few kreutzers. The Eulen-spiegel, the 
Four Sons of Aymon, the Fair Melusina, Emperor 
Octavian, the beautiful Magelone, Fortunatus, etc., 
the whole tribe, town to the Wandering Jew, were at 
our command, whenever we preferred them to cakes 
and sweetmeats. The great advantage was, that when 
one was fairly worn out, it could be bought again, 
and again devoured*." 

Jacobs was born fifteen years after Goethe; but 
habits and ways of thinking had undergone no per- 
ceptible change in that quiet period : — " The absence 
of external excitement," says he in his c Personalia/ 
"rendered the instruction we received, however scanty, 
more fruitful than the more ample and varied intel- 
lectual food set before a palate palled with excite- 

* Aus meinem Leben. Erster Theil. 



56 



STEEPENS READING. 



ment. Our course of instruction was extremely 
meagre ; but as we liacl little or nothing else to do, 
as no amusements presented thernselves ; and the 
vivacity of youth required occupation, ennui itself 
drove us to labour. We found our stimulus in my 
fathers little library, which contained the best poets 
of that time. We read what came in our way. and 
imitated it. We described nature like Kleist and 
Zacharia, wrote idylls like Gessner, and travels and 
adventures, the great difficulty in which was. to find 
names. As Busching^s ponderous geography filled us 
with awe, we undertook a description of the globe 
ourselves, and began it. I know not why, with Turkey; 
perhaps because, to the childish imagination, the 
strange is always the most attractive*." 

Steffens tells us that his father's library consisted 
chiefly of medical books and of a few of the older 
German poets. An old botanical work in folio, with 
rude woodcuts, seems to have had the greatest at- 
traction for him, and to have fostered his taste for 
natural history: while passages from Saxo Gram- 
matical, given in all their naif details, in a long and 
tiresome history of Denmark, filled his imagination 
with those minute and vivid pictures which alone can 
render history either interesting or intelligible to 
* Jacobs 5 ; Personalien.' 



SOCIAL LIFE IX GERMANY. 



children. Like almost all children who have been 
remarkable for any superior intelligence in after-life, 
he was left to choose the intellectual food which 
suited his mental appetite and digestion. " Luckily/' 
says he, S( boys at school were not at that time so 
overloaded with lessons as to have no free action of 
their choice. ... I had leisure for much that in- 
terested roe, and the silent enjoyment which this 
afforded me. when, in these days of unspoiled child- 
hood, nature and history and religion filled my mind, 
rendered the two years I spent at Roeshilde among 
the richest of my life." The following passage con- 
tains a remark very much at variance with the re- 
ceived plans, but which we believe to be profoundly 
true and very important. Speaking of his solitary 
tastes and studies, he adds — " One amusement I 
shared with my brothers. Richardson's novels, and 
still more c Tom J ones/' interested us extremely. Tom 
was our favormte. Whatever there is dangerous in the 
book we were not old enough to be hurt by" 

If it were possible to prohibit the reading of any 
books of doubtful tendency till the season of youth 
were over, it might perhaps be better to do so ; 
but since that is impossible, and since the eman- 
cipation from the strict supervision of childhood 
coincides with the first tumultuous awakening of the 

d 3 



58 



THE SCOTCH MINISTER. 



passions, it may well be doubted whether it is pru- 
dent to reserve the whole force of such influences to 
the age at which they are the most dangerous. 

"Whatever were the defects of the education of that 
time, it had many advantages. The minds of chil- 
dren had then much freer play than now, and were 
allowed to develope themselves according to their 
individual nature. If, by this treatment, the more 
sluggish never attained to any development at all, 
on the other hand, those which contained a strong 
principle of life acquired a vigour and originality 
which seems to become daily more and more rare. 

Bat let us turn from the effect of books to the still 
more powerful and important influence of living men. 
The most interesting portrait in Madame Schopen- 
hauer's book, is that of her neighbour and friend Dr. 
Jameson, the minister of the English colony or fac- 
tory which had long been settled at Danzig. He was 
a native of Scotland, and, we conclude, a member of 
the Scottish church. This is not explained; pro- 
bably, in those less polemical days, this did not occur 
to the English who invited him over, as an objection. 
We scarcely remember to have read a more touch- 
ing picture of evangelical simplicity and benevolence 
than that which our author draws of her early friend. 
We contemplate it with a just, at least a pardonable 



THE GERMAN MINISTER. 



59 



pride in our countryman, — a pride which we never 
conceal when such characters come in the way of our 
notice. His humble, blameless life — his simplicity 
and truth — his warm, active pity for every pain and 
every distress — his love for children, occasionally 
dashed by a tinge of no less gentle melancholy, the 
trace, as it seemed, of some early and secret wound — 
his enthusiasm for all that could enlighten and en- 
noble the human race — his truly Christian piety and 
charity, were well fitted to draw all hearts to the ser- 
vice of Him whose minister he was. In this lovely 
and venerable form did religion first appear to the 
opening eyes of the little girl. He was the next-door 
neighbour of her parents. 

" Kasche/' she says, " carried me out on our terrace 
one bright morning for the first time, to show the new 
comer to our reverend neighbour ; he took me, with 
a pleased smile, in his arms, and this moment seemed 
to bind him more closely to my family. 

"As I grew up, Dr. Jameson was my teacher, my 
guide, my counsellor: he watched over my young 
soul, and never left me till the day when another re- 
ceived, together with my hand, the charge of my 
guidance and well-being/-' 

Her regular tutor, Kuschel, was a sort of youthful 
Parson Adams ; uniting perfect simplicity and pro- 



60 



LUTHERAN CLERGY. 



bity, a warm heart,, kindly temper, and unpretending 
merit, to singular awkwardness and ignorance of the 
world. Like the greater part of the clergy of the 
Lutheran Church at the present day, he was the son 
of parents in humble life. He was the sole support 
of a widowed mother. The sequel of his history is 
one of those noiseless tragedies which are but too fre- 
quent among men of his character and class. At an 
early age he sank under toil and privation, deferred 
hopes and exhausted powers; the afflicting end of 
many a blameless, joyless life like his. 

The evils incident to studious poverty in all ages, 
were much aggravated by the austere discipline which 
then prevailed in the Lutheran Church. 

" The dress of the candidates for holy orders was 
entirely black, with the exception of the bands which 
marked then' calling. A calotte of black velvet, about 
the size of a dollar, on the crown of a curled and 
powdered periwig, also a badge of sanctity, and a 
narrow cloak, half covering the back and reaching to 
the ground, which the wearer was bound to gather up 
in graceful folds when he walked along the streets ; 
such was the dress enjoined by the dreaded head of 
our church, the very reverend Dr. Heller. These 
young divines must have trusted to the inward glow 
of faith for a defence against the cold, which often 



LUTHERAN CLERGY. 



61 



reached twenty degrees of Reaumur ; for great-coat 
or fur-mantle were not to be thought of. Woe to the 
unhappy candidate who was caught beyond the bounds 
of his own four walls in any other habit than the one 
prescribed ! All hope of a living was lost to him for 
ever ; for Dr. Heller regarded such an offence as equal 
to the most abominable heresy. Not only the can- 
didates but the officiating preachers, and even their 
wives and daughters, were forbidden to go to plays, 
concerts, or any other public amusements. The ut- 
most they dared venture on was a modest game of 
ombre, and that only among friends, and under the 
strictest seal of secresy." 

This rigid discipline is, we believe, no more to be 
found. The reverence for "the cloth," as Parson 
Adams called it, has also declined ; and individuals 
are now everywhere tried pretty much according to 
their individual merits, real or supposed. A great 
deal of the altered feeling towards the protestant 
clergy may perhaps be ascribed to the polemical cha- 
racter of our times. The clergy aye now regarded 
as a sort of spiritual athletes, whose business it is 
to interest and excite an audience, and to contend 
for victory. Their triumphs may secure them ad- 
mirers and partisans ; but they will not, in the long- 
run, succeed in exciting those sentiments of love and 



62 



RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS. 



veneration which involuntarily follow the steps of the 
man in whose everyday acts the Gospel has a living 
illustration. 

Jacobs says that in his youth the religious opi- 
nions of Germany were much what Luther had left 
them. "The reverence with which the Bible was 
regarded was in a degree shared by the clergy, who 
called themselves the servants of God's Word; and, 
in that character, enjoyed a respect which is con- 
stantly on the decline, and which certainly will not 
be revived by higher stipends and more sounding 
titles/' 

"Now, the divisions are endless. The faith of the 
church and of the school are different ; that of the 
enlightened clergy is another; in every State it varies. 
While one protestant community is accusing another 
of heterodoxy, the Church of Rome maintains her 
steadfast march, and strengthens her ranks with those 
who, longing after a positive faith, and unable to find 
it in the confusion of opinions, turn to her, from 
whom they receive it unquestioned/' 

It is worthy of observation that this was written 
seventy years ago. 

We have already spoken of the intolerable yoke of 
a burgher aristocracy — of the hauteur, far exceed- 
ing that of kings and princes, which rendered the 



CONFIRMATION. 



63 



downfall of the patricians of Niirnberg a triumph 
to their subject fellow-citizens. There, indeed, the 
constitution of the city was oligarchical; but it is 
curious to see how the same temper manifested itself 
in a city where perfect equality was assumed as the 
basis of society ; and how pride, servility, and woiid- 
liness went hand in hand with pharisaical rigour. 

"This aristocratical spirit," says Madame Schopen- 
hauer, " bordered on the ludicrous. At every public, 
and especially at every religious, ceremony, at mar- 
riages and christenings, and even at the Holy Supper, 
before God's altar, it broke forth in a flagrant man- 
ner, and gave occasion to the most disgraceful scenes, 
especially among women. 

" On no account could I have been confirmed in 
public with the other children of the town — this was 
esteemed proper only for the lower bourgeoisie ; nor 
could the minister be invited to perform the cere- 
mony in my father's house, in the presence of my 
family and intimate friends. This was the practice 
in the Reformed (i. e. Calvinistic) Church, and in our 
Lutheran city we strove to keep our Lutheran usages 
unaltered. So willed the still dark spirit of that time; 
there was not the least conception of the light which 
has since broken in upon us, and cleared and tran- 
quillized all minds. 



64 



CONFESSION. 



" Among other remains of former days which were 
obstinately adhered to, I may mention the custom 
of private confession, which was very like that of the 
Catholic Church. Nobody who had not confessed, 
could be admitted to the Lord's Supper. The fees 
derived from this source formed a considerable part 
of the income of favourite preachers ; for every one 
was at liberty to choose his confessor, without refer- 
ence to the parish he inhabited. This was not much 
calculated to promote brotherly love among the 
clergy. 

" TTith lively emotions of piety I followed my pa- 
rents on TThitsunday into the Graumuncken Church, 
which was decorated, according to custom, with 
flowers and fresh May. I was led by my mother, 
who was equally moved, through the church to the 
confession-room, commonly called the Comfort-room 
[Trostkammer) . A crowd of people of the lower 
classes were waiting before the door. Many, it was 
evident, had waited longer than they could well 
afford, till as many as could find room could be ad- 
mitted : when they were confessed, admonished, and 
absolved in a mass, and paid the indispensable con- 
fession-fee (Beichtgroschen). On our arrival how- 
ever they were doomed to a new disappointment : » 
they were sent back, and only we three admitted. 



THE TROSTKAMMER. 



65 



Our spiritual guide sat enthroned in a comfortable 
easy-chair in full canonicals. Kneeling before him, 
we made our confession. My father had condensed 
his into a few brief expressive words ; my mother 
had chosen a verse of a spiritual song ; and I, a very 
short one out of Gellert's Odes. The whole was de- 
spatched in a few minutes ; we then seated ourselves 
opposite to his reverence, heard an admonition, and 
were absolved. After a little conversation about wind 
and weather, the last news, and, above all, polite in- 
quiries about our health respectively, which my father, 
out of pity for the poor people waiting, cut short, we 
returned." 

Revolted by the indecent precedence given to wealth 
and station, wearied by the admonition, and some- 
what scandalized by the sight of a bottle of wine 
and glass in the room devoted to ghostly comfort, a 
lasting shock was given to our heroine' s piety, " by 
the appearance of the ducats which her father secretly, 
but not unseen, slipped on the table near the reverend 
divine ; and the sidelong glance with which the latter 
ascertained whether the usual number had received 
an addition of one, in consequence of her presence, 
together with the unctuous smile with which he 
nodded his thanks to her parents." 

In spite of the rigid Lutheranism of Danzig, liberty 



66 



LIBERTY OP CONSCIENCE. 



of conscience was complete. The Eonian Catholic re- 
ligion was not only tolerated, but the monastic orders 
lived as unmolested in then 1 convents as in a Catholic 
country. There was also an ecclesiastic of that church, 
whose presence and functions in a Protestant city 
presented a singular and unexplained anomaly. He 
bore the title of the Pope's Official, and was in fact a 
sort of Xuncio. Not only were Protestants who mar- 
ried within the forbidden degrees obliged to get a dis- 
pensation from. Rome, but the Official had the power 
of performing the ceremony of marriage for Catho- 
lics or Protestants, without the consent of parents — 
without license or witnesses — in a little chapel at- 
tached to his house : and a marriage so contracted 
was as valid as any other. This strange privilege re- 
mained unimpaired down to the time of the occupation 
of Danzig. The official lived in the greatest retirement, 
and was hardly ever seen. Madame Schopenhauer 
says she never knew anybody who was acquainted 
with him. and that a sort of mystery hung over his 
whole existence. 

The following Christmas scene is picturesque and 
touching : — 

" Every Christmas-day. three of the Brothers of 
the order of Mercy, in the black garb of their order, 
bowing humbly, entered the dining-room, just as we 



BROTHERS OF MERCY. 



67 



were assembled for dinner. They brought a quaintly- 
formed silver plate, on which were a few coloured 
wafers stamped with a crucifix ; and a box filled with 
snuff, which they prepared from herbs in their convent, 
and sold for the benefit of the poor. 

<( My father rose from table, and advanced a few 
steps to meet them. T\> children each received a 
wafer ; he took a pinch of snuff out of the box, and 
laid some money on the plate ; the monks bowed 
again and retired, as they had entered, in silence. 

" The whole transaction, during which not a word 
was spoken, made, probably for that reason, a solemn 
and at the same time melancholy impression upon 
me. I was almost ready to cry. I knew that these 
venerable men lived lives of the greatest privation, 
received into their convent the sick of whatever faith, 
even Jews, and carefully nursed them. Adam, who 
was himself a Catholic, and had been cured by the 
good fathers in a severe illness, always told us about 
them after their visit 

It will be a misfortune for the world, if narrowed 
views of religion on the one hand, and an extravagant 
abuse of philosophical speculation on the other, should 
conspire to rob Germany of her fairest and noblest- 
characteristic — one which she will ill exchange for 
any that she can borrow from her neighbours — a pro- 



68 



CHRISTMAS AT DRESDEN. 



found and prevailing religions sentiment, united to 
complete toleration and Christian charity. We have 
more than once heard even the common people speak 
with an honest pride of the harmony in which they 
lived with their neighbours of a different confession. 
They were evidently conscious that it was a distinc- 
tion, and justly valued themselves upon possessing it. 
In a considerable part of North Germany this com- 
plete tolerance is combined with a strict adherence to 
the forms instituted by Luther, and with the more 
cheerful spirit which distinguishes his church from 
that of Calvin. Saxony (royal and ducal) naturally 
retains the strongest impress of the Lutheran charac- 
ter and traditions. There is a great difference, for 
example, in the manner of observing the festivals of 
the Church, at Dresden and at Berlin. Nothing can 
be at once more solemn and more festive than the 
observance of Christmas-day at Dresden. Soon after 
midnight you are awakened by the salvos of cannon 
which announce the great festival. A few hours later, 
choral music comes floating through the silence and 
darkness as if from heaven : the choristers of the 
Kreuzschule are singing their beautiful hymns on the 
outer gallery which surrounds the lofty tower of the j 
Kreuzkirche. At daybreak the fine military band 
parades the principal streets, playing, as a reveille. 



EISENACH. 



69 



the venerable and noble carol which the church of 
Luther has sung from its infancy — the greeting of 
the angels to the shepherds : — 

" Von Himmel koch nun komm ich her 
Unci bringe ihnen neue Mahr." 

Soon the huge deep-toned bell of the Kreuzkirche 
swings through the air with its long and harmonious 
vibrations ; and the streets are filled with well-dressed 
people thronging to the churches. A little later you 
may see the Catholic monarch of a Lutheran people, 
with all the members of his house, devoutly joining in 
the offices of a church which they have no other 
means of upholding, than by the warm charity of their 
hearts and the spotless purity of their lives. The 
whole scene is at once religious, antique, and joyous, 
and realizes all our conceptions of a Festival of the 
Christian church. 

But the reverence for Luther, and the adherence 
to the forms which he instituted, are still more un- 
shaken in the country lying on the confines of the 
Saxon duchies and electoral Hesse. Here he still 
lives and reigns, in spite of Rationalists or Hege- 
lians, Papists or Pietists. A year or two ago, two 
travellers stopped to dine at Eisenach, under the very 
shadow of the Wartburg. While they were at dinner, 
a choir of scholars, in their long black cloaks, came 



70 



DR. MARTINUS." 



under tne windows and sang several hymns. The 
travellers inquired whether it was any particular fes- 
tival. " No," replied the waiter, " it is an ancient 
traditional institution established by Dr. Luther (eine 
alte herkbmmliche Anstalt, von Dr. Martinus einge- 
richtet) . We give two dollars and a half a year, and 
for that the poor scholars must sing twice a week be- 
fore our house ; and for that they receive their learn- 
ing {unci dafiir bekommen sie ihre Studio) ." "We are 
sorry we cannot do justice in English to the naif and 
formal pedantry of the whole speech. Our esteemed 
friend the waiter of the Ruthenkranz was however 
mistaken in ascribing the invention of this custom to 
" Dr. Martinus." That great innovator was far too 
wise a man to reject any institutions of the church he 
overthrew which could be useful to that he founded. 
To him, reared in Catholicism, the School and the 
Choir were the necessary and inseparable appendages 
of the Church. He speaks of learning music as a 
religious duty, — a sentiment which he shared with all 
the pious founders of cathedrals and religious houses 
throughout Europe. It was the more fanatical sects 
of Protestants who brought about the unholy divorce 
of Religion and Art, which has inflicted such wounds 
upon both. 

Many of the illustrious scholars of Germany earned 



THE SWAN. 



71 



their education by this street-singing. Doring, whose 
edition of Horace was republished in London in 
1820, and who was rector of a school at Guben in 
1781, complains of having to sing before the doors of 
the citizens of that town on holidays ; but adds, that 
the fees made up too considerable a part of his salary 
for him to discontinue the practice. 

In a small and thriving town called Ahlfeld, in the 
country of the whitehaired Catti, whose blood is as 
unadulterated as their faith, the same travellers 
stopped at the inn in which the stout-hearted Re- 
former slept, on his way to the Diet of Worms. It 
bore, and doubtless still bears, the sign of the Swan, 
in memory of its illustrious guest, whose name is the 
Sclavonic word for swan. So our travellers were in- 
formed by the host, a most respectable man in man- 
ners and appearance, who assured them that the inn 
had descended to him in a direct line from his an- 
cestor, the host of Luther. He also told them that 
such was the reverence with which the old house 
was regarded, that a schoolmaster of Eisenach and 
all his scholars had walked from that town to see 
it, and that such pilgrimages were not unfrequent. 
We see no reason to doubt the statement, which was 
further attested by the antiquity of the house; we 
remember certain rafters of a bulk worthy to support 



72 



DANZIG COSTUMES. 



the massive frame of the Reformer. The district in 
question is a very German, as well as a very Lutheran 
part of Germany. In the bordering country of Hesse, 
the manners of the peasantry are little changed ; 
they are still clad from head to foot in the stout 
linen woven in their own houses, decorated with large 
metal buttons, and have a singularly primitive air. 

Like all commercial cities, and especially seaports, 
in that age, Danzig presented a variety of costumes, 
and of striking national characteristics, of which we 
can now form no idea. Its situation was peculiarly 
favourable to this motley grouping. The march- stone 
of civilization, as Madame Schopenhauer calls it — the 
point at which the Slavonic and Teutonic races blended 
— at which the more polished nations of the south 
and west met the semi-barbarians of the north and 
east, it was necessarily rich in varied and picturesque 
figures. Poles, — from the splendid and haughty Sta- 
rost, who looked as if the earth were not worthy to 
touch his yellow boot, attended by his running foot- 
men, habited to their very shoes in white, with long 
ostrich feathers in their caps, streaming as they ran 
panting by the side of his carriage, — to the half-naked 
Schimkys, who navigated the rude barges, laden with 
corn, down the Vistula, and the wretched Marutschas, 
nocking in troops to weed the fields around the city 



DANZIG PHYSICIANS. 



73 



for the barest pittance ; the rich Jews of Warsaw and 
Cracow in their stately Oriental garb, and their wives 
in rich brocade, covered with gold chains and pearls 
and antique jewellery; Russian merchants, with their 
singular dress, rude Istwostschichs, and the ponderous 
bags of roubles carried behind them, attesting their 
ignorance of the commercial transactions common to 
civilized Europe ; M. de Pons, the French resident, dis- 
tinguished by his red-heeled shoes, and the English 
consul, Sir Trevor Correy, by " his splendid equipage, 
and his negro -boy Pharaoh — these, and many more, 
were the foreign elements in this gay picture ; while 
the adherence to the established dress of the various 
professions and classes among the natives, completed 
the motley variety. 

Among the most remarkable of the latter were the 
physicians. Madame Schopenhauer's father was the 
first to brave the prejudice against inoculation, which 
seems to have been as strong in Danzig, as, according 
to Goethe, it was among the free citizens of Frank- 
fort. After reading the following description of the 
doctors, we can easily imagine what a determined 
opposition they would give to " theory," or experi- 
ment. 

u The character of our Danzig physicians of that 
day left my father not the faintest hope of effecting 



74 



INOCULATION. 



his purpose by their means. In the first place, they 
were, all and several, extremely old, and petrified in 
obstinate prejudices. "Whether they had ever been 
young, where they had lived, and what they had done 
in their youth, I know not ; but up to the twelfth or 
fourteenth year of my life, I had never seen or heard 
of a young physician. These reverend gentlemen en- 
joyed the title of Excellency, and not only in their 
own houses and from their servants, but in society 
generally ; only very intimate friends could sometimes 
venture on a respectful e Herr Doctor/ Their head 
was covered with a snow-white powdered full-bottomed 
periwig with three tails, one of which hung down the 
back, while the others floated on the shoulders. A 
scarlet coat, embroidered with gold, very broad lace 
ruffles and frill, white or black silk stockings, knee 
and shoe buckles of sparkling stones or silver-gilt, 
and a little flat three-cocked hat under the arm, 
completed the toilet of these Excellencies. Add to 
this a pretty large cane with a gold head, or mermaid 
carved in ivory, upon which, in difficult cases, to rest 
the chin, — and certainly every one will admit the im- 
possibility of so much as thinking of an innovation in 
their presence." 

England, the leader in all enterprises, seems to have 
mainly contributed to the spread of this great dis- 



THE FIRST PARTY. 



75 



covery in Germany. Goethe speaks of "travelling 
Englishmen" as the only inoculators in Frankfurt ; 
and the Dr. Wolf, who introduced the practice into 
Danzig, " came from England recommended to Dr. 
Jameson." Madame Schopenhauer remarks, that 
" he was one of a race of physicians who just then 
came into fashion ; they set at defiance all the esta- 
blished rules of decorum and civility, and affected a 
simplicity of manners bordering on rudeness. Pro- 
bably from contrast, they were the especial favourites 
of fine ladies and princes." 

The description of our heroine's inoculation, the 
preparation for it, the anxiety and terror it occasioned, 
and its final success, is amusing enough. But, we have 
not room for it. 

It is impossible to praise too highly the good- 
natured impartiality with which Madame Schopen- 
hauer describes the absurd and troublesome fashions, 
the follies and the abuses, of her early days ; she sees 
them with as clear and unprejudiced an eye as if they 
were not surrounded with the bright morning mist of 
youth. 

" My emancipation from the school," says she, 
"fell in the spring; balls, concerts, plays, etc., had 
ceased. A few late evening parties alone remained ; 
the brilliant part of these was the two hours' long hot 

e 2 



76 



OUR GRANDMOTHERS' TOILET. 



supper under which the tables groaned. In Danzig, 
as everywhere, supper was the social meal; dinners 
were not thought of. To such a party, for the first time 
in my life, was I invited, as a confirmed (i. e. grown- 
up) young lady, of scarcely fourteen years of age. With 
a frisure in the most fortunate state of preservation, I 
had alighted from my father's carriage ; not a grain of 
powder had fallen from the lofty tower, the broad sum- 
mit of which was crowned with a labyrinth of feathers, 
flowers, and beads ; my new silk gown rustled proudly 
over the large and stately hoop. Holding the hand of 
the eldest daughter of the house, who had advanced 
to meet me, I tripped lightly on my gold-embroidered 
shoes, with heels at least two inches high, up two 
steps leading into the room. Never bad I been so 
handsomely dressed — never had my heart throbbed so 
violently — the folding-doors were thrown open, — ah ! n 

Some entanglement of the long trains, some slip of 
the high-heeled shoes, threw our young ladies pro- 
strate on their noses, and overthrew the glories of our 
heroine's debut. 

We cannot refuse our fair and youthful readers — if 
indeed we dare flatter ourselves that we have any such 
— a little deeper insight into the mysteries of their 
grandmothers' toilet. 

" Ball- dresses," she continues, "properly so called, 



ROUGE. 



77 



we had not ; for the simple reason that the varieties of 
spider-net, tulle, organdie, gauze, or whatever be their 
names, which now float like a mist around the grace- 
ful forms of young ladies, as yet reposed in the wide 
and distant domain of the possible. And yet we 
danced in our heavy silk c company' gowns — danced 
with passionate glee j were sought, admired, and now 
and then a little adored ; just exactly as our grand- 
daughters are at the present day. How this was pos- 
sible, in the disguise we wore, is still a mystery to 
myself. Our mammas were more richly dressed — in 
other words, more heavily laden — than their daugh- 
ters. Paris sent them its fashions, somewhat obsolete 
indeed, and deformed by exaggeration, but still they 
were eagerly received. One alone formed an excep- 
tion — rouge. The few ladies who dared to act in de- 
fiance of the opinion that it was sinful to wear rouge, 
were forced to do it with the utmost secresy, if they 
did not wish to expose themselves to a public rebuke 
from the pulpit." 

It seems, from Madame Pichler's Sketches, that the 
consciences of the Vienna ladies were less scrupulous, 
or their spiritual guides more indulgent. There, the 
same rule obtained as in Paris : married women 
alone were permitted to wear rouge, as a sort of 
symbol or affiche of the franchises conferred by mar- 



78 



PATCHES 



riage. We have always wondered why the whole vir- 
tuous horror of artificial aids to beauty was directed 
against red and white paint. Ladies are delicate 
casuists; and we should like to see a treatise from 
some fair hand, on the innocence of a "front," the 
veniality of a " tournure," and so on, through all the 
gradations of criminality, to rouge. In what part of 
the scale patching would come, we know not, Ma- 
dame Schopenhauer does not mention any attempt of 
the clergy of Danzig to repress this practice, though 
nothing could be more felonious than the animus it 
displayed. 

"Another fashion found great acceptance with our 
fine ladies, so absurd that I should have doubted the 
possibility of its existence, did I not remember the 
long flat little mother-of-pearl box, with a looking- 
glass in the lid, which often served me as a plaything. 
This all ladies carried about thein, that whenever a 
patch fell from its place, the void might instantly be 
filled. These little bits of so called English plaister 
were cut in the form of very small full and half 
moons^ stars, hearts, etc., and were stuck on the face 
with a peculiar art, so as to heighten its charms and 
increase its expression. A row of moons, from the 
very smallest, gradually crescendo to larger, at the 
outer corner of the eyelid, was intended to add to the 



DANCES. 



79 



length and brilliancy of the eye, A few little stars 
at the corner of the month gave a bewitching arch- 
ness to the smile ; one in the right place on the 
cheek, set off a dimple. There were larger patches 
in the form of suns, doves, cupids, etc., which were 
called assasins" 

We were going to remind our fair readers of the 
exposition of the art and policy of patching, by the 
delicate hand of Addison; — but we forget — young 
ladies nowadays do not read the e Spectator/ 

" Everything," continues Madame Schopenhauer, 
" in domestic, as well as in social life, wore a different 
air from what it now wears, even the greatest joy 
of youth — dancing. The elegant dancers of the pre- 
sent day would hardly bear the tedious vandalism 
of a ball of that age for an hour; and no doubt 
they will pity their grandmothers in their graves, 
when they hear that no dancing soul among us 
dreamed of such a thing as waltz, gallopade, or co- 
tillon. These dances are all of South German origin, 
and had not yet found their way to the shores of the 
Baltic and the Vistula. Our northern popular dances 
were the Polonaise and the Mazurka, and are so to this 
day. Then, as now, the ball opened with a Polonaise. 
But what a difference between that stately and grace- 
ful dance, and the lazy, slouching walk which has 



80 



THE WALTZ. 



usurped its name ! To understand what I mean, it 
is necessary to see it danced by Poles. Our trains 
having been carefully fastened up by our mothers, 
an Anglaise followed, then Mazurka, quadrilles, and 
lastly minuets ; till an abundant hot supper, which 
neither young nor old disdained, was served. After 
this, dancing was resumed with fresh vigour, and con- 
tinued till morning broke P 

Madame Pichler, in her description of a Vienna 
Carnival ball in the last century, laments over the 
disappearance of the graceful and decorous Alle- 
mancle (as the slow waltz of that time was called all 
over Europe), which has degenerated into the whirl 
we now turn from with dizzy eyes. The only merit 
of a waltzer of the present day seems to be the power 
of spinning round like a frantic Fakeer. 

We rather wonder that some of the venerable 
chroniclers of German manners have not moralized 
upon this, as a symbol of the change which seems to 
strike them more than any other — the incessant de- 
mand for novelty, the restless whirl of society, and the 
no less constant weariness and lassitude consequent 
upon it. Things which were formerly events, are 
now every- day occurrences ; and pleasures which were 
looked forward to for months with beating hearts, 
are now regarded as childish, insipid, and tedious. 



EXCITEMENT. 



81 



StefFens gives a striking description of the impression 
made on him by the first sight of a play, which, 
as he says, formed an epoch in the life of a child. 
He makes some very just reflections on one of the 
great moral diseases that now afflict the world, un- 
dermining the health, destroying the usefulness, and 
withering the capacity for enjoyment in the very 
morning of life, — the craving for excitement generated 
by the cruel recklessness with which it is adminis- 
tered in childhood. The kindly bounty of nature, 
which has formed these little ones to be happy with 
a flower or a pebble, while their busy minds are work- 
ing their hidden way through a thousand mysterious 
processes, is thrown away upon us. 

" Generally speaking," he says, " it was not the 
custom then, as it now is, to cram children with plea- 
sures. If the instruction was scanty, so were the play- 
things and amusements. Now, people seem anxious 
to exhaust everything, of every kind, as soon as pos- 
sible ; and the result is a weariness of life, a thorough 
disgust, Avhich, early excited, exchanges one satiety 
for another; and strives to abridge the intervals 
between true living and productive enjoyment with 
such fearful rapidity, that it can nowhere take root 
and come to maturity. Thus the child turns with 
disgust from its heaps of toys ; the youth from his 

e 3 



82 



LONDON. 



oppressive mass of undigested acquirements ; and both 
have to regret the loss of epochs which ought to 
have had a vital influence on their whole future lives, 
but which are faded, withered, fallen. The boy is 
prematurely knowing, — the youth, a critic. Thus is 
our life dried up at the core; the fresh productive 
power is destroyed ; the holy faith that guards the 
mystery of existence is annihilated. It is not the 
English lord alone to whom nature and men are be- 
come objects of loathing; our very children are biases, 
and look back to their past days with scorn. Our 
philosophy is a series of definitions, and our poetry a 
satire on life." 

And if Germans find cause to complain of this 
rapid and wearing action of all the wheels of life, what 
shall we say of our vast and tumultuous metropolis, 
compared to which the capitals of Germany are quiet, 
homely, and stationary? — where almost every draw- 
ing-room contains representatives of races, tongues, 
manners, interests, the most diversified; where the 
mightiest and most exciting questions are discussed 
over every dinner-table with a freedom terrific to a 
German Rath ; where your right-hand neighbour has 
probably been to the North Pole, and your left is just 
returned from Central Africa ; where inventions and 
discoveries spring up under our feet, and where a 



CHILDHOOD IN GOTHA. 



83 



large class of tlie wealthy and the idle are ever at 
hand to encourage and reward every attempt to mi- 
nister to their comfort and amusement ? But as the 
distance between given points may be equal, though 
the point of departure is different, we have no doubt 
the change is quite as great in Germany as in Eng- 
land. We remember to have heard or read of nothing 
at home like the absolute monotony in which, ac- 
cording to Jacobs, childhood was passed in Gotha, — 
then no doubt a fair specimen of the smaller cities of 
Germany. Such a state of existence would now be 
thought fit only for a penal colony, or a bettering- 
house. If we had not good evidence for it, we should 
be unable to believe that children grew, prospered, 
and were happy in a life so entirely grey upon grey 
(to use an excellent Germanism) . We forget what 
a glow and brightness are diffused over all things by 
the sunlight of youth ; how the imagination of child- 
hood (if not blunted by excitement) can give shape, 
colour, life, meaning, to the most ordinary objects, 
and find, not " sermons," but romances and dramas, 
in stocks and stones. 

"The life of the middle classes," says Jacobs, 
"was then very simple. My father's income was 
precarious, and we grew up under restraints which 
would now appear melancholy and oppressive to chil- 



84 



CHILDHOOD IN GOTHA. 



dren of our class. But the amusements to which 
the children of the present day are accustomed, were 
unknown to those of a former; and they missed 
not what they did not know. Spacious buildings, 
which kept asunder the members of a family, were 
rare, and those who had them used them only on 
rare occasions. Parents and children were generally 
together in one room ; the children worked and played 
under the eyes of their parents, and a great part of 
education consisted in this companionship. Filial 
obedience, the source and foundation of all domes- 
tic and civil virtues, was a matter of course; and 
parents were the better for the constraint which the 
presence of their children imposed on their words 
and actions. The respect which parents (with few 
exceptions) inspired, spared them much admonition, 
teaching, and preaching ; — the cheap but feeble sub- 
stitutes for practical education. So, at least, was it in 
our house. Company was hardly thought of; at the 
utmost, families assembled after afternoon service on 
Sundays ; the women to discuss the sermon, the men 
to talk of business or news, or, if they had nothing 
to say, to play backgammon. Family festivals were 
rare. On New-year's-day and birthdays, relations 
wished each other joy : the boys generally in a Latin 
or German speech, got by heart. Presents were not 



goethe's grandfather. 85 

thought of. Those for children were reserved for 
Christmas Eve, when the tree, with its sweetmeats 
and angels and wax-lights, gave an appearance of 
festal splendour to things which were in fact mere ne- 
cessaries. Bethlehem, with its manger and crib, was 
indispensable; and this sacred spot was surrounded 
with a blooming landscape, gardens, and ponds, 
which my father had for weeks employed his evening 
hours in decorating with his own hands. He thought 
his labour richly rewarded on the long-expected even- 
ing, by our delight and admiration. The narrative 
of St. Luke, which it had not at that time occurred to 
anybody to regard as a myth, was always read. The 
joyous recollection of this pious festival caused me 
and my brothers to retain the same custom with our 
children. With this exception, our winter pleasures 
were confined to a not very spacious court-yard, ex- 
changed in summer for a little garden within the 
walls, which my father hired. We took no walks. 
Only once a year, when the harvest was ripe, our 
parents took us out to spend an evening in the 
fields/' 

We have from Goethe's master-hand a perfect pic- 
ture of contented monotony in advanced life, pour- 
trayed with that matchless combination of accurate 
detail and poetical colouring peculiar to himself. He 



86 



A K.K. HOFRATH. 



tells us that, in his grandfathers house, every day the 
same business was followed by the same simple plea- 
sures, in exactly the same order. In such a life, dis- 
appointment was scarcely possible. The old man's 
expectations were extremely moderate, and he knew 
exactly what he expected. "In his room," says 
Goethe, " I never saw a novelty. I recollect no form 
of existence that ever gave me to such a degree the 
feeling of unbroken calm and perpetuity." Yet this 
was in the busy and wealthy city of Frankfurt, on 
the high-road of Europe. 

Even the tumult and luxury of the capital of the 
Empire did not materially disturb the tranquil and 
regular habits of its citizens. Let us see how they 
lived in the gay, the gorgeous Vienna, of which the 
natives tell you with such exulting emphasis, "Es 
giebt nur ein Wien." (There is but one Vienna.) 
The following is Madame Pichler's description and 
summary of the life of a Vienna employe in her 
youth : — 

" Between sixty and seventy years ago, the income 
of a K. K. Hofrath (an imperial Court Councillor), 
who generally had, besides his salary, official rooms, 
enabled him, with good management, to live in a 
respectable manner, keep an equipage, and still lay by 
something yearly. He and his wife thus lived in 



UNIFORMITY. 



87 



tranquil comfort, and in the enjoyment of compe- 
tence ; they settled themselves in the dwelling which 
cost them nothing, as handsomely as was consistent 
with an accurate calculation of their means ; and in 
twenty or thirty years died in the midst of the same 
furniture, pictures, etc., with which they had first 
adorned it. The effect of this unchangeable plan of 
life on the character and happiness, was incalculably 
different from that produced by the restless, striving, 
all-attempting, all-overturning existence of the pre- 
sent generation, both for good and for evil. And if 
we hear those times spoken of as perruque, and re- 
proached, not unjustly, with routine, Philisterei, etc., 
I must still think that the absence of the continual 
exciting movement which now prevails, favoured the 
possibility of deep thought and steady feeling : the 
character, though more one-sided and narrow, had a 
depth and consistency which is now rare." 

In all Madame Pichler's personages of the middle 
class, we find the contentment with the uniform and 
inflexible recurrence of the same amusements, which 
characterizes children. Children in a natural state 
prefer an old book, a story which they have heard a 
hundred times, to any thing unaccustomed. The nar- 
rator who thinks to please them by various readings 
and new fioriture, finds himself completely mistaken. 



88 



VIENNA FESTIVALS. 



At the smallest departure from the authentic version/ 
he is called to order, and brought back to the es- 
tablished form of the history, every deviation from 
which is a disappointment. So it was with the amuse- 
ments of our ancestors. Each holiday had its appro- 
priate and oblige diversion, its peculiar dish or con- 
fection, its fixed form of salutation. To alter these 
was to invert the order of nature. Surprises were 
unwelcome : people liked to know exactly what was 
coming, — what they had to see, to feel, to say, and 
even to eat. 

Madame Pichler^s description of the observance 
of the holidays at Vienna, with all the peculiarities 
of dress, viands, etc., sacred to each, is very amusing. 

Easter Sunday, with its consecrated meat, distri- 
buted as presents among the friends of the house, and 
the ceremonious visits " to wish a happy festival, and 
that the meat might agree with them," accompanied, 
on the part of inferiors in rank, with a mark of re- 
spect still to be seen in Russia, Poland, and even in 
Bohemia, — the kissing the hem of the garment^. 

* I was walking with the late Countess T H near her 

magnificent castle in Bohemia, when we met a peasant- woman. The 
Countess spoke to her with her usual kindness, and passed on. Per- 
ceiving that the woman stopped, I looked round, and saw her hastily 

kissing the hem of Countess T- 's dress. The noble and excellent 

lady looked half- embarrassed that an Englishwoman should witness 



VIENNA FESTIVALS. 



89 



The procession of bakers on Easter Tuesday, which 
originated in a tradition connected with the siege 
of Vienna by the Turks, and was continued down to 
the year 1783. The Eve of St. Nicholas, on which 
the Saint appeared in person, questioned the half- 
believing children, rewarded the good, and held up 
the rod with threatening mien to the naughty. 
Christmas Eve, with its strange mixture of fasting 
and jollity, of solemnity and mirth, to which the pro- 
phetic Lesseln (pouring melted lead or wax into water, 
and reading fortunes in the fantastic forms they as- 
sumed), or the fleets of burning walnut-shells, each 

what might seem to her an act of degrading servility ; and said 
something of its being " a foolish custom." To me, who knew her, 
and the ceaseless beneficence of which the people around her were 
the objects, no homage could appear excessive; and I was not dis- 
posed to quarrel with the form. The misfortune is, that such demon- 
strations are degraded by being paid to mere power. 

In my walks in and about Carlsbad with the late venerable and 
pious Ladislas Pyrker, Archbishop of Erlau, I frequently saw men and 
women come softly behind him and kiss the skirts of his coat with 
the most fervent reverence, often with murmured blessings. This 
never surprised me. All the holiness, purity, benignity, meekness, 
and patience of the religion he professed and exemplified, were legibly 
written on his pale and suffering face. The poor people also knew the 
works of enlightened charity and piety to which he devoted his time, 
his thoughts, and his princely revenues. 

I must add, that I never happened to see the same homage offered 
to any of the princes and potentates who resorted to Carlsbad. 
Pyrker' s dignities, as Magnate of Hungary and Prince of the Church, 
were lost and forgotten in his Christian perfections. 



90 



SUMPTUARY LAWS. 



containing tlie name of one of the company, and set 
afloat in a large basin to seek its destined partner, 
were indispensable. These, and many like these, 
were the amusements which every revolving year 
brought round ; — perhaps with pretty nearly the same 
unequal results as our more varied, costly, and ex- 
citing pleasures ; for if many were more wearied than 
amused, so are they still. 

We have already noticed the broad line of demar- 
cation which formerly existed between the several 
classes of society. It was the object of the legisla- 
ture of every country to perpetuate this ; and one of 
the expedients most commonly resorted to was, the 
enactment of sumptuary laws. By no class of rulers 
were these more rigidly maintained than by the mu- 
nicipal aristocracies of free cities. Even in Madame 
Schopenhauer's youth they were still in fall force. 

" At the weddings of the wealthiest and most re- 
spectable artisans, an officer, whose especial business 
it was, invariably presented himself in fall dress, 
with a sword by his side, to count the guests and see 
that they did not exceed the prescribed number, and 
to ascertain that the bride wore no forbidden orna- 
ments, such as real pearls. But the fear of being 
ridiculous in the eyes of neighbours and equals was 
still more powerful than the law. No woman of that 



ENGLISH SHABBY FINERY. 



91 



class thought of wearing the hoops, the richly-trimmed 
trains, or the high head-dresses of the ladies." 

"No woman of that class/' or of any class, in 
England, has now the least idea that any dress is unfit 
for her station which it is in her power to buy. The 
rage for declassement is far greater than the desire for 
good, or even becoming, clothes. Hence the innumer- 
able shams and counterfeits which follow the appear- 
ance of every new and handsome fabric, as shadows 
their substance. Hence, the preposterous appearance 
of our serving-women, the ridiculous transformations 
of the Cinderella into the Princess, which are daily 
operated by our kitchen hearths. Hence too, the de- 
plorable and discreditable appearance of the women 
of the lower classes, who look as if clothed from the 
refuse of the fripier's shop. In this respect we are 
far behind France, Belgium, Holland, and indeed, we 
fear, all Europe. We have often had occasion to ad- 
mire the substantial, characteristic, neat, and becoming 
dress of French working-women, and to contrast it, 
with no little mortification, with the draggled trum- 
pery, the paper flowers, the wretched burlesques of 
" fashions," exhibited by the corresponding class at 
home. 

We find Madame Schopenhauer's statement cor- 
roborated by Madame Pichler's description of the 
Vienna citizen of the same date. 



92 



THE WEALTHY SADDLER. 



" The wealthy saddler, who was supposed to be able 
to leave each of his three sons thirty thousand florins, 
lived in a few simply-furnished rooms, surrounded by 
his family and journeymen, ate well, but without ele- 
gance, dressed the same, and placed his pride in never 
affecting anything above his station. For this reason 
he never allowed his wife to wear any dress worn by 
women of the higher ranks ; no hoop, no open gown 
— that is, a gown with folds hanging from the shoul- 
ders and ending in a sort of train"*. These were pecu- 
liar to ladies. The citizens' wives wore those folds 
confined at the waist by a black silk apron, and end- 
ing at the feet. The worthy citizen's rigour was so 
great, that he once hacked to pieces a beautiful lace 
cap which his wife had made in secret, that she might 
see it was not the cost, but the pretension, of such 
luxury which he objected to." 

"So thought, so lived the Vienna tradesmen sixty 
or seventy years ago. Their journeymen ate with 
them at the same table; the discipline, though pa- 
ternal, was strict, and often enforced on both children 
and workmen with the stick or the strap. Rough 
words and coarse jokes formed the scanty conversa- 
tion at table. 

"On Sunday, after the huge and indispensable 
roast was despatched, the party separated to their se- 

# Is not this what was called a sack ? 



DECLINE OF DRUNKENNESS. 93 

veral amusements. The master and mistress went to 
church to hear the benediction, which they received 
with great devotion and then returned home. The 
Sunday clothes were now laid aside. The master went 
with a few neighbours to a grocer's shop, and there 
indulged rather freely in an Italian salad and foreign 
wine ; while the wife regaled herself and her gossips 
with excellent coffee served in a massive silver pot. 
At eight or half-past eight the master came home, 
somewhat more excited than usual, joked a little with 
one of his pretty neighbours, gave -his wife a hearty 
smack to appease her rising jealousy, and ended the 
Sunday with the same homely simplicity as he began 
it." 

In justice to the present age, upon which it may 
be thought we, as well as our gossips, are rather hard, 
we must express our surprise that none of them 
have said anything about the astonishing decline 
of drunkenness in Germany. " Not a century ago," 
says Carl Julius Weber, " German sotting {saufen) was 
proverbial. Different towns and cities claimed pre- 
eminence in it. To drink more palatino, was to get 
dead drunk. The collections of antiquarians are fall 
of drinking cups and horns not made to stand. Trink 
alle am, was the motto of the Oldenburger Wunder- 
horn. The last Count of Gorz used to make his 



94 



GERMAN JOVIALITY. 



children drink at night, and, if they wanted to go to 
sleep, he grumbled at their degeneracy, and doubted 
if they were his own children. The Hohenlohe deed 
of investiture (Lehensbrief) required the claimant to 
drink out {vet quasi) the great feudatory goblet (Lehens- 
becher), as a proof that he was a German nobleman 
and an able-bodied warrior. In that principality, 
even about fifty years ago, there were no glasses hold- 
ing less than half a schoppen (a half-bottle). The 
Homburger chronicle records the feats of two sisters, 
who drank thirty-two schoppens at a sitting, and then 
walked quietly to their home, half a league distant." 

There were Temperance Societies {Massigkeits- 
Orden) in those days, but — hear it, Father Mathew ! 
— they thought they had accomplished great reforms 
when they restricted the members to fourteen cups 
(Ordensbecher) & day. 

The Ecclesiastical Courts were distinguished for 
their jovialty. It was a canon of Mainz to whom the 
world was indebted for the admirable excuse, that 
" there was too much wine for the mass, and too little 
for the mills." 

There is still a good deal of drunkenness among 
the lower classes in some parts of Germany, though 
not nearly so much as in England. Among the higher 
classes it is become rare in both countries. The 



" PROGRESS" IN AUSTRIA. 



95 



beer-drinking of the students is not to be classed with 
ordinary intemperance. It forms part of a system 
(the Studentenwesen) ; and, whatever their admirers 
at home or abroad may tell them, not the best part. 
It is difficult to understand the enjoyment of pouring 
down the throat gallons of beer, neither pleasant to 
the taste nor exhilarating to the spirits. But a sic Dii 
voluerunt" — so the Burschen have decreed. It begins 
by being a fashion, and ends by being a want ; like 
its kindred abomination — smoking. 

Madame Pichler, who, as we have remarked, is apt 
to insist on the degeneracy of the age, laments over the 
galloping speed at which Austria has joined in the mad 
race after novelty and change. This will surprise our 
readers, who are accustomed to regard Austria rather 
as the drag on the wheel of European life. We should 
have thought that the easy, contented character of the 
people, and the insurmountable barriers which sur- 
round the higher ranks, would have kept down all 
ambitious imitation and restless change. 

In some respects we venture to think the pro- 
gress is not alarming. Madame Schopenhauer' s de- 
scription of the precautions of the police on the Aus- 
trian frontier forty years ago, is wonderfully exact to 
this day. You are still detained half an hour, at the 
least, while the accomplished functionary is spelling 



96 



TRAVELLING. 



out your passport ; you are still asked your religious 
confession, the maiden name of your grandmother, 
and other particulars not less important to the inte- 
rests and safety of the Austrian empire ; but all this 
is done with extreme quietness and civility, and if two 
zwanzigers are accidentally found to have insinuated 
themselves within the folds of your passport, you hear 
nothing of searching. We have always admired the 
simplicity and directness with which Mr. Murray's 
Handbook fixes the price of the virtue of a K.K. 
Custom-house officer. The writer evidently knew his 
men. The good Austrians are the last people to take 
this amiss : hypocrisy is not one of their faults***". 

Should we enter on the subject of changes in all 
that relates to travelling, we should never have done. 
England in this matter took the lead of all other 
countries, and for many years was immeasurably 
ahead. Her superiority is still very great ; but the 
demand and the money of her own wandering sons 
have forced the countries through which they pass in 
swarms, into some approach to her own condition. 

# It is needless to remark on the new light which broke upon 
Europe on this subject in 1848. 'No people were, we believe, more 
astonished at the events which happened in Yienna than the Aus- 
trians themselves. Yet, in spite of political convulsions, the re- 
marks in the text are not less true than when they were written : so 
much more easy is it to overthrow a Government, than to alter the 
habits or the prejudices of a people. 



ENGLISH TRAVELLERS. 



97 



The Zollverein has put an end to half the vexations 
of travellers. Fifteen years ago, the Custom-house 
officers of M. de Nassau and M. de Bade (as M.Victor 
Hugo, in his work on the Rhine, thinks it graceful 
or witty to call the hereditary princes of those states', 
were troublesome and inquisitive — exactly in an 
inverse ratio of the magnitude of their sovereign's 
territory. Now, having shown your passport on the 
frontiers of Prussia, where you rarely find either in- 
civility or exaction, you may go from Aix-la-Chapelle 
to Carlsbad without a question. 

The diffusion of a taste for travelling, like all other 
changes in manners and habits, may however be viewed 
from opposite sides, and we find some of our chroni- 
clers very severe upon a class of persons of whom 
Englishmen were regarded as the type. We have seen 
that even good-natured Madame Schopenhauer can- 
not refrain from a passing coup de patte at English 
travellers, and at the intellectual results of their long 
wanderings ; and in many other writers we find sneers 
at their wealth, their insolence, their eccentricities, 
and their blunders. We wish we could affirm that 
the race which provoked these sarcasms were extinct. 

Immermann concludes some remarks on the impa- 
tient temper and superficial tastes of our age with 
the following passage. 



98 



ENGLISH TRAVELLERS. 



- c Another symptom of the restless state of men's 
minds is the universal travelling. Formerly the tra- 
velled were few, and those few travelled with some 
distinct aim of business or knowledge. The character 
of the mere traveller, which was formerly confined 
to the English, is now common in Germany. They 
travel for travelling's sake. They flee from the mo- 
notony of life, and want to see something new — 
it is indifferent what. We do not blame this taste ; 
it is an inevitable consequence of the stormy excite- 
ment men have passed through. As to its effects, 
travelling enlarges the mind, but chills and hardens 
the heart ; the genuine traveller is a thorough egotist. 
Those he meets with are merely means to his ends/' 

The " stormy excitement" to which he refers is, 
of course, the French Revolution, and all its conse- 
quences. It is strange however that he did not see 
how little that could have to do with a taste which 
was long peculiar to England. 

But in this, as in many other social changes, the 
evil is obvious and immediate, the good indirect and 
slowly developed. Whatever may be the absurdities 
and the shortcomings of English travellers, they have 
been the pioneers of every enterprise, and have contri- 
buted more than any other people to tear asunder the 
veil which hid man from man, and nation from nation. 



GERMAN AND FRENCH TRAVELLERS. 



99 



Valuable truths liave penetrated even through their 
ignorance or their prejudice; and their intolerance 
and disdain have not been able to stop the growth of 
that humaner and more cosmopolitan spirit to which 
increased intercourse inevitably gives birth. 

The Germans are, next to the English, the greatest 
travellers, and however Immermann may lament this, 
we regard it as a great advantage to Germany and 
to the world. They have more knowledge, simpler 
habits, less arrogant nationality, and less intolerant 
prejudices, than any other people. These qualities 
eminently fit them for travellers ; and if they do not 
yield to their besetting inclination to imitate the faults 
of their neighbours, they may render excellent service 
to humanity by spreading accurate information and 
just views of other forms of society. 

From the French, with some brilliant exceptions, 
less is to be expected on this field. With them, 
France, or rather Paris, has too long been the pat- 
tern upon which all human society ought to fashion 
itself, to render any great enlargement of their so- 
cial horizon possible. It is a misfortune for the 
world that the incurable tendency to regard all 
things through a French medium, and to refer all 
social forms to a French standard, should unfit 
writers who handle the pen with such matchless dex- 

f 2 



100 



OCCUPATION OF DANZIG. 



tenty for the office of reporters on the social aspects 
of other countries. 

We have seen that among Madame Schopenhauer's 
earliest recollections, was the sudden blow given to the 
franchises and the commerce of her native city. Her 
whole youth was passed in witnessing its convulsive 
struggles and long agony ; and when we read her de- 
scription of the barbarous and destructive form under 
which monarchical power first presented itself to her, 
we cease to wonder, or even to smile, at her stiff- 
necked republicanism. It is impossible to read, with- 
out indignation, of a free, peaceful, industrious popu- 
lation, whose prosperity was their own work, whose 
institutions were sanctified by time, handed over with- 
out appeal to the brutality of a foreign soldiery and 
foreign douaniers, their trade destroyed by ignorant 
and arbitrary legislation. "We readily allow for all 
the resentments and prejudices of the sufferers. 

Her description of the deplorable and exaspera- 
ting circumstances of this partial and, as it were, 
collateral consequence of the partition of Poland in 
1772, are painfully interesting. The free city of 
Danzig stood conditionally under the protection of 
Poland, and its ruin was one of the evils conse- 
quent on that iniquitous measure. By a sort of 



THE DANZIG CITIZEN. 



101 



mockery, the city itself was not occupied, but it was 
surrounded with a cordon of Prussian custom -houses, 
so near as to render it impossible for the citizens 
to go backwards and forwards to their country- 
houses, without being exposed to the brutal inso- 
lence of functionaries whose whole office and exist- 
ence was new and hateful to them. Ladies and 
children were forced to stand in rain and storm, while 
every corner of their carriages was searched. Even 
their persons were not respected, and the women of 
the lower classes were exposed to the grossest insults 
The rage of the citizens, which a consciousness of their 
own impotence had heightened into almost frantic 
desperation, gradually subsided into a profound and 
suppressed hate of Prussia and everything Prussian. 

Such were the circumstances in the midst of which 
Madame Schopenhauer grew up. We need not wonder 
that the spirited reply of a young Danziger to a Prus- 
sian general, which won the hearts of all his fellow- 
citizens, made a deep impression upon hers. 

u A Prussian general was quartered in the country- 
house of one of the most eminent merchants of Dan- 
zig. He offered to the son of his host to permit the 
forage for his horses to enter the city duty free. c I 
thank the General for his obliging offer, but my stables 
are for the present well provided, and when my stock 



102 



HEINRICH SCHOPENHAUER. 



of forage is exhausted, I shall order my horses to be 
shot/ was the brief and decisive answer. It was soon 
known through the town, and the more admired, be- 
cause the young man's passion for his beautiful horses 
was notorious. Nobody delighted in it more than I, 
though I knew my republican countryman only by 
sight/' 

The republican countryman was Heinrich Floris 
Schopenhauer, to whom, soon after, at the age of 
nineteen, she was united. Not long after, this pa- 
triotic citizen went to Berlin, and requested an 
interview with the great Frederic. It was imme- 
diately granted, and Frederic, struck by his frank, 
upright character, and his knowledge of commer- 
cial affairs, pressed him to settle in his dominions, 
and offered him every possible privilege and protec- 
tion. M. Schopenhauer was beginning to feel the 
resistless influence which Frederic exercised on all 
around him, when the King, pointing to a heap of 
papers in a corner, said, Voila les catamites de la 
ville de Danzig. These few words broke the spell for 
ever; and though Frederic afterwards repeated his 
offers, the sturdy patriot never would accept the small- 
est obligation from him. At length, seeing that all 
hope of the deliverance of his native city from a fo- 
reign yoke was at an end, he determined to quit it for 



THE END. 



103 



ever, and to seek a freer home. In this determina- 
tion his young wife fully concurred, and they set out 
on a tour of observation through the Netherlands, 
France, and England. The free citizen was well 
matched. They stopped a short time at Pyrmont, — 
then, except Carlsbad, the only one of those German 
baths whose names have since become Legion; — and 
here the republican bride, together with a sister Han- 
seate from Hamburg, had a glorious opportunity of 
showing their disdain of courts and sovereigns. The 
then reigning Duchess of Brunswick very good-na- 
turedly asked to have these young ladies presented to 
her. They professed their ignorance of court etiquette, 
but were told they had only to make an inclination, 
as if to kiss the hand or the garment of the Duchess. 
This was too much. "We, free-born women, subject 
of no prince, kiss the hand of another woman, neither 
our mother nor our grandmother ? The very thought 
made my republican blood boil, and, supported by my 
Hamburg friend, I declined the proffered honour." 

Here we must leave our pleasant gossip; — not 
without expressing our regret that so true and de- 
licate a painter did not live to fill up the outline she 
had marked out. 



104 



DISSOLUTION OF THE HOLY ROMAN 
EMPIRE. 

In the foregoing pages we attempted to place before 
our readers some pictures illustrative of the state and 
aspect of German society before Europe had felt that 
mighty convulsion which shook all the relations of 
social life, and all the ideas upon which those rela- 
tions rest, or by which they are governed. We say 
advisedly, all ; for we are persuaded that there is no 
corner, however secluded, of social or domestic life, 
through which the vibration has not been felt, or 
which it has left unchanged. 

"We have drawn upon contemporary sources, and 
have chiefly relied on descriptions traced by female 
hands. We have tried to catch some of the tranquil 

Memoiren von Karl Heinrich, Hitter yon Lang- : SJcizzen aus 
meinem JLeben und Wirken, meinen Heisen und meiner Zeit. 2 
Bande, Braunschweig, 1842. (Memoirs of Charles Henry, Knight 
of Lang : Sketches of my Life and active Career, my Travels, and 
my Time. 2 vols. 12mo. Brunswick, 1842.) 



GERMANIC EMPIRE. 



105 



yet varied aspects of domestic and social life through- 
out that great Empire, which contained within itself 
almost every political, civil, and religious element. 
These various elements were reflected back by no less 
various social peculiarities ; though, in the midst of the 
diversity, German society had a common character of 
placidity and bonhomie which it is a sort of repose to 
contemplate. 

German life, as we have seen it, w T as inextricably 
bound up with the existence and character of the Ger- 
manic Empire. Danzig or Niirnberg could have been 
no other than free imperial cities; Gotha or Weimar, 
than the capitals of small principalities. The Eccle- 
siastical States, again, had a character of their own, — 
and one, we may add, on which it is allowable to look 
back with a sort of regret, as models of mild, pacific 
government. Towns, insignificant as to size, wealth, 
and population, had a moral and intellectual import- 
ance, to which the provincial cities of France or Eng- 
land presented no parallel. "With the overthrow of 
the great body of which these were the various and 
widely differing members, their peculiar life was over- 
thrown ; and it is impossible to detach the consider- 
ation of the one from that of the other. 

We are now coming to a different phase in the 
social history of Germany. The placidity has sunk 

f 3 



106 



DISSOLUTION OP THE EMPIRE. 



into torpor, tlie bonhomie, into feebleness; ancient 
institutions have lost their force, and ancient forms, 
their meaning ; the vitality of the mighty frame is 
gone, and corruption is taking possession of it. "We 
shall see the august and venerable Holy Roman 
Empire exposed, by the parricidal hands of its sons, 
to the insults and lacerations, and betrayed by their 
meanness and selfishness, to the rapacity, of the 
stranger. 

We bid adieu with a sigh to our venerable ladies, 
the loyal Viennese and the sturdy Hanseate, and to 
all their pleasant gossip and affectionate loold rigs- 
back at the dear old times, and are fain to take our 
information from the harsher pens of men, inspired by 
indignation and disgust at the scenes they were com- 
pelled to witness. If, in the following pages, we are 
forced out of the province of domestic and social life, 
which is more agreeable to our taste, we entreat our 
readers to recollect that it is the inevitable conse- 
quence of the evil times we are fallen upon. 

The further we advance in the great historical 
drama, the more will domestic life fall into the back- 
ground ; or rather, the more deeply will it be coloured 
by political events. "Without therefore abandoning 
the domain of " Manners and Customs/' we shall 
see, first, how these affected the political condition of 



CHARACTER OF LANG. 



107 



the country; and may perhaps afterwards try to show 
how they were again reacted on by the overthrow of 
monarchs and states. 

We must premise that the work of Hitter von Lang 
gives the most unfavourable picture of the last days 
of the Empire ; — indeed, of all that it describes. The 
author belongs to a class of men for whom we enter- 
tain neither admiration nor respect. He is essentially 
a devisor ; and, like all writers of that temper, seems 
never so well pleased as when men act in so base 
and absurd a manner as to justify contempt and deri- 
sion. While they fancy themselves emancipated from 
prejudice, and believe that they take a large and dis- 
passionate view of human things, such men are in fact 
condemned to the narrowest one-sidedness ; for what is 
a more miserable defect of vision than to see only the 
deformed ? Yet, as is undoubtedly the case with the 
book before us, they often reveal truths from which a 
more earnest mind may draw useful as well as grave 
reflections. All that they see is there ; but there is 
a great deal which they do not see : they want the 
appropriate moral sense. 

We shall find a curious example of this partial 
blindness in Lang's account of the coronation of the 
Emperor Leopold at Frankfurt, in which there is not a 
single incident nor image that is not exquisitely ludi- 



108 WAHRHEIT UND KEINE DICHTUNG. 



crous and mean. If we turn from this to Goethe's 
description of the same ceremony, at the coronation 
of Joseph II. in 1764, we shall see how true it is that 
omne receptum modo recipientis recipitur. 

Lang says, in his few words of introduction, that 
he shall give " Wahrheit und keine Dichtung" (Truth 
and no Poetry) ; and inexorably has he fulfilled his 
promise in the latter respect. As to the former, it is 
difficult to believe that he has been equally scrupulous. 
Yet we must confess that, much and justly as the 
book is disliked by all people of good taste in Ger- 
many, for its sneering and cynical tone, we have not, 
after some inquiry, been able to learn that anybody 
has contradicted the facts it contains"*. 

We have heard Germans who love their country re- 
gret its publication, and seem distressed that strangers 
should read so unfavourable a picture of it. We 
think this a mistake. It is only by comparing what 
Germany was in the last century with what it is now, 
that we can appreciate the progress that has been 
made, or console ourselves under the disappointment 
that the progress has not been greater. 

As a bright and salient point in the social picture, we 

* Droysen calls it " a work more deserving of credit than our 
national pride is willing to admit." " Vorlesungen iiber die Freiheits- 
Tcriege. Kiel, 1846." 



GERMAN COURTS. 



109 



may cite the character of the Courts in Germany; for 
whatever may be said of the enormous difference be- 
tween court and people, we doubt whether it is ever 
very great. We are convinced that the court is, gene- 
rally, a very fair expression of the current morality of 
the people; partly, because it is sure to influence them 
by its example, and partly, because no Court would 
dare to indulge in shameless depravity in the face of a 
virtuous people. Who that thinks of the brutal orgies 
of Frederic William II., or the remorseless debauch- 
eries of Augustus the Strong, can look at the domes- 
tic virtues now enthroned at Berlin and at Dresden, 
without confessing that a new standard of morality 
is accepted by rulers, as well as by their subjects? 

Hitter von Lang tells us that he presents us " with 
the shadows of a past world, which few of its descen- 
dants can understand ; of the ruins of a worn-out em- 
pire, and of a conflict between old and new manners." 
Matter enough, it will be acknowledged, for interest- 
ing contemplation. 

The first scene of the curious drama of which our 
author is the hero, is laid in one of the small indepen- 
dent principalities, of which the French Revolution 
left so few standing, and even those few retaining 
scarcely the shadow s of their former independent exis- 



110 



SMALL STATES. 



tence. With the Empire, vanished the power and con- 
sideration which they enjoyed as members of that au- 
gust and time-hallowed body. Those which have been 
spared^ subsist only by the mutual jealousy of the 
Great Powers, and look with an anxious glance into 
a dim and uncertain futurity. TTe have heard the 
balance of good and evil resulting from their exist- 
ence discussed often enough among those most in- 
terested in the question. Yet we confess ourselves 
unable to pronounce on it with the happy facility with 
which such trifles are commonly disposed of. To a 
Frenchman or a Prussian, the doubt must appear 
the result of imbecility • and truly, if greatness and 
power, conquest and domination, are the sole ends 
of social and political life, he is right. But spite of 
the evils of a little court which is at everybody's 
elbow, — the trifling occupation it gives to men's minds ; 
the tiresome monotony of its gossip ; the tendency to 
shut out the larger world, and to contract all the 
views and ideas, — small States have advantages and 
blessings of their own, which wisdom and humanity 
will not overlook. This is not the place to par- 
ticularize them ; but as the picture we are going to 
offer our readers is not a very flattering one, we are 
bound to say that another might be drawn, equally 
true, and in much fairer colours. 



THE HEREDITARY FORESTER. 



Ill 



France exhibits the most complete and striking 
example of a great and richly gifted country, in which 
all the vital energy is withdrawn from the extremi- 
ties, and concentrated on one point. We have had 
some opportunities of comparing the intellectual po- 
verty of French provincial towns with the culture 
and resources of a small German capital. Even the 
smallest of these is a very metropolis of instruction, 
taste, and intellectual life, compared with most of 
the large trading cities of France. Nor have the 
political results of this torpor of the members and 
hypertrophy of the heart been so satisfactory, w r e 
should have thought, as to provoke the envy of Ger 
many. 

Heinrich Lang was born in 1764 at Balgheim, a 
village in the district called Kiess, one of the most 
beautiful and fertile in Swabia; in which, though 
lying on the frontier of both Franconia and Bavaria, 
the Swabian character and dialect reigned in all their 
freshness and purity. The land formed part of the 
extinct ecclesiastical principality of Oettingen-Oettin- 
gen, and was at that time in the possession of another 
branch of the princely house, called Oettingen- Spiel- 
berg. His father was pastor of Balgheim. He was 
descended from a line of foresters (Jager), who, for 



112 



THE USELESS BOY. 



a time beyond the memory of mam had possessed 
the Forsthaus, or, as we should call it, the Ranger's 
House, at Morbach, which, together with the calling, 
was transmitted from father to son, as of right. Many 
posts and employments in Germany had, by the mere 
sanction of time and custom, acquired an hereditary 
character, which no one ventured to dispute. Lang's 
family was of great antiquity; the name occurs in 
the archives of the Empire in the year 1290, as pos- 
sessors of land in this neighbourhood. 

The destiny of our author's grandfather was decided 
in the following curious manner : — ee At a magnificent 
boar-hunt, my great-grandfather, Jager Johann Con- 
rad Lang, complained bitterly to his princely master, 
that among his many sturdy boys he had one (my 
grandfather) of whom he could make absolutely no- 
thing ; he couldn't even send him to cut oats, much 
less to take a boar or a stag. 'I'll tell you what/ 
said the Prince, 'let the chap (Kerl) learn Latin; 
I'll make him my clerk.' This useless boy became 
the confidential man-of-business, or agent, of the 
Count of Wallerstein-Oettingen, who, in 1731, was 
the reigning prince." We must remark, by the bye, 
how long language retains the impression of institu- 
tions after the substance is destroyed. Nothing is 
still more common in Germany than to hear the actual 



THE FAITHFUL JOHANN. 



113 



possessor of a title and estate — the present Earl, as 
we should say — called "der regierende Graf/' — the 
reigning Count. In Austria this has a meaning, for 
though, as towards the Government, the nobles have 
been stripped of all political character, as towards 
their tenants (or subjects, as they are called) they still 
possess many of the privileges of sovereigns"*. But 
in other parts of Germany, the nobles are not half 
so well entitled to be called regierend as they are in 
England ; since they have neither retained their old 
privileges, nor acquired legislative power. "With these 
old Counts of the Empire (Reichsgraferi) the case was 
far otherwise : they enjoyed not only every title and 
symbol of royalty, but also all its substantial and 
absolute power. 

The following incident is like a scene in a senti- 
mental comedy, where superhuman justice is done by 
some bourreau bienfaisant. The succession had been 
contested, and the above-mentioned Johann Lang had 
adhered with unshaken fidelity to the infant son of 
his old master. When the young Count died, and 
his uncle, the Count of Oettingen-Wallerstein, the 
adverse claimant, succeeded, everybody gave the faith- 
ful Johann up for a lost man. He went with the other 

* Further changes in these relations have taken place since the 
revolutionary movement in 1848. 



114 



THE DIRECTOR, MALGRE LUI. 



members of the Council to the " Huldigung" (act of 
homage) at the Castle, but the Count did not deign 
to look at hirn, nor was he called to do homage or 
asked to sit. He remained standing humbly behind 
his sovereign's arm-chair for above an hour, when 
suddenly the Count started up, and turning abruptly 
to him, said, u What do you stand here for ? Why 
won't you swear allegiance to me ? Do you think I 
don't know how to value your fidelity to your old 
lord V y * And at the same moment he presented him 
to the astonished Council as the new Director of the 
two Chambers (i.e. Treasuries) of Oettingen and Wal- 
lerstein. Master Johannes, terrified at this sudden 
elevation over the heads of his kinsmen and gossips, 
used all his eloquence to decline the distinction, seated 
himself at the lowest place at table, and the same 
evening fled home to Oettingen. "But the next day 
a Heiter, heavily armed, alighted at his door, mounted 
the stairs with clanking spurs, and stamping with his 
foot (three times, we presume — according to the 
ancient form prescribed to heralds or messengers) 
delivered to him the written decree, on which was 

* This is spoken in the third person singular — the form in which 
superiors formerly addressed their inferiors: "Why does he stand 
here ?" etc. It is now generany regarded as an insolent and coarse 
mode of address, and has given way to more reasonable and humane 
manners. 



A WAY TO RAISE A REVENUE. 



115 



the superscription, 'To my Rammer- direct or, whe- 
ther he will or not, Johannes Lang/ and with it a 
French note from the Count, directed 'A Monsieur 
Lang, Direct cur de ma Chambre, bongre ou malgre 

The worthy Johannes reluctance did not arise from 
humility alone. Such honours were often perilous 
and costly, as he had seen in the example of his own 
father-in-law, who had been the Prince's Tax-secretary 
and Rent-meister (we leave our readers to find the 
analogous titles). The poor and prodigal lords of 
that time purposely placed men of property at the 
head of their affairs, that they might use them for 
the support of their own tottering credit. When the 
sponge was squeezed dry, they threw it away and 
took another. The following is a literal translation 
of the order sent to Balthasar Reiner, the father- 
in-law of Johannes Lang : — 

" By the Grace of God — We, Ulrich Ernst, Prince 
of Oettingen-Oettingen, (and so on :) 
" Well-beloved and faithful, 

" Since our Princely Consort's Highness has gra- 
ciously determined to take a journey to the baths of 
Pyrmont, for which purpose a sum of 500 ducats in 
gold is indispensably necessary for travelling ex- 
penses, we graciously command you to send us the 



116 



A WAY TO PAY DEBTS. 



above-mentioned sum out of your official chest ; or, 
in failure thereof, out of your own funds, within 
twenty-four hours, under pain of an execution." 

The terrified Rent-meister sent an immediate reply, 
to the effect that, the day before, his Highnesses faith- 
ful servant had sent 150 gulden out of his own private 
purse into the court kitchen, without which the usual 
provisions of the day could not have been bought ; 
and that there was not the least prospect of any 
money from the official treasury for the Princess's 
journey. Hereupon this message instantly followed: — 
" Well-beloved and faithful, 

" Since we perceive from your most obsequious 
(iinterthcinigsten) reply, de dato hesterno et presentato 
hodiemo, that pars prima rescripti nostri is not prac- 
ticable, it follows that pars secunda must be executed 
without fail." 

i. e. the 500 ducats must be raised on the credit of 
the Rent-meister. And this was the ordinary course 
of things. 

" If it came to a dispute, Partiales and Impartiales 
always maintained that not the Most Serene drawer, 
but the most faithful and obedient {treugehorsamste) 
acceptor must pay. At length the tormented Rent- 
meister could go on no longer ; being creditor to his 
princely master to the amount of 27,000 gulden, with- 



CONDITION OF THE SUBJECTS. 



117 



out current interest. The Count, who was distressed at 
nothing but the drying-up of such a source, dismissed 
him with these words, ' Go home, and a decree shall 
follow, with which you will be satisfied/ This decree 
was as follows : — e We, etc. etc. Since we have gra- 
ciously resolved to make a reduction, both in our 
civil and military establishment, in which you are in- 
cluded, we lose no time in communicating to you/ " 
etc. etc. 

And this was the end of the song. The heirs pro- 
duced the proofs of the debt before the two sove- 
reign courts (Aemter) of Oettingen and Kirchheim. 
After being bandied from the one to the other for 
a hundred years, in the year 1813 our author, in the 
name of all the creditors, accepted the sum of 3000 
gulden as payment in fall of all claims. 

Monstrous and ludicrous as such a tyranny, set 
off by the Tom Thumb etiquette of such a court 
(whose highest ambition it was to emulate the gran- 
deurs of that of Ansbach), must appear to us, yet, on 
the whole, Lang admits that the condition of the 
subjects of these little princes was not an unhappy 
one. "The children of the servants of a sovereign 
house, male and female, could reckon with certainty 
on an hereditary provision ; in return, an inviolable 
respect for everything princely and lordly was incul- 



118 



THE GRANDFATHER^ HOUSE. 



cated on them from the cradle. Thus the happy 
Forester's house in Norbach sent forth a rapid suc- 
cession of foresters, rangers, house- stewards, and chief 
butlers ; and, at a later period, of learned and reverend 
divines." 

Lang's description of his grandfather's house may 
remind our readers of some remarks of the venerable 
J acobs of Gotha**, who was born in the same year as 
our author, as to the changes in the social habits of 
Germany. " The manners in the house of Johannes 
Lang," says his grandson, " were those of Old France. 
Not a day passed without its regular morning and 
evening visitors; the former were invariably wel- 
comed with sweetmeats and liqueurs, the latter with 
a glass of wine; no stranger was suffered to depart 
without being pressed to stay to dinner. There were 
as yet no houses of public entertainment or meeting. 
Every evening the head of a family assembled about 
him the different members of it, and his intimate 
friends. The house of every acquaintance stood open, 
without any laborious inviting or dragging people to- 
gether. Tobacco and beer were not seen. The dress 
had a sort of formal elegance ; the men did not ven- 
ture to appear in boots and long coats. Dancing was 
reserved for weddings. . . . Such w r as the quiet and 
# See page 28, ante. 



THE GOOD PASTOR. 



119 



regular life, public and private, led by J ohannes Lang 
for twenty years." 

We must pass over the childish reminiscences of 
our author, — even the delightful earthenware pelican 
on the top of the stove, with its splendid red beak, 
which he used to sit looking at for hours from the 
little stool at his mother's feet ; though we are abun- 
dantly sensible to the charm of it. His father was 
bred to the church, and seems to have been not 
only a worthy and pious Pastor, but a man of sin- 
gular and various erudition. And here we gladly 
record one characteristic feature of German manners 
which is not yet effaced"*. Very near his father's 
house was a convent of Benedictine monks. Not only 
did the learned protestant divine live on terms of 
perfect amity and good neighbourhood with the good 
fathers, but he voluntarily gave the younger monks 
instruction in the oriental languages and in mathe- 
matics. They were always sure of a friendly and 
hospitable reception at his house; — though once on a 
time our author remembers to have heard his mother 
call out hastily to the maids to take in a large cake 
that had been set out before the door to cool, for fear 
the sight of it from the convent windows should bring 

* Since this was written, a retrograde movement towards religions 
intolerance has been made in some parts of Germany. 



120 THE COURT OF HOHENALTHEIM. 



her an inconvenient visit. "Not less friendly were 
the good Pastor's relations with the synagogue, where 
he sometimes attended divine worship. On these 
occasions the elders always handed him the sacred 
books, and he, to their great delight, read alond the 
lesson for the day in Hebrew." So did the excellent 
man understand, so practise, Christianity. On such 
teachers of the people their Master's lessons and 
example are not thrown away. They know the ex- 
tension He gave to the word neighbour, and they act 
upon it. We have, alas ! learned to give it a narrower 
interpretation. 

At a very early age our author lost his father, and 
was taken by an uncle, to reduce the burden of the 
numerous family which pressed upon the widow. In 
the year 1771, this uncle, George Lang, removed to 
Hohenaltheim, where the Prince of Wallerstein held 
his court. The little boy was dazzled with the mag- 
nificence around him, — the soldiers, the musicians, a 
steward, a court gardener, an apothecary, a head- 
forester, etc. "How did I stare/' says he, "at the 
running footmen with their silver-fringed aprons, the 
black servants, the huge dogs ! — how did we run when 
we heard the cry, the Prince ! the Prince ! " 

Nor were these sovereign Counts by any means 
the smallest of their class. The Reichsritter (Knights 



KNIGHTS OE THE EMPIRE. 



121 



of the Empire) were, though lords only of a few hun- 
dred subjects, not only more absolute than the King 
of England, but, as members of the Germanic body, 
to many intents, and especially in the important 
matter of intermarriage, the equals of the Electors of 
Brandenburg or Bavaria. 

We remember to have heard,, from our learned and 
excellent instructor in the German language"^", a very 
naif description of the awe with which as a child he 
regarded his own Sovereign, a Knight of the Empire. 
"I heard of the Emperor," said he, ^but all that was 
too remote : the greatest man living in my eyes was 
the lord in whose small territory I was born." To 
this body of high and independent nobility belonged 
the austere and heroic Stein. Though his sympathies 
with the people, and his efforts in favour of popular 
institutions were not less active than those of his 
friend and fellow-labourer Niebuhr, (who was no less 
proud of his peasant descent,) he had a high sense of 
the dignity of the ancient aristocracy of which he 
was a member. 

At Hohenaltheim, though only four leagues from 
their former residence, and, like that, in Swabia, the 
Lang family found totally different manners, customs, 
and dialect. It was one of those singular villages called 

* Mr. Heilner, author of an admirable German Grammar. 

G 



122 



A FKEIDOB.F. 



a Freldorfj or free village, possessing a democratic 
constitution. Every year the community elected five 
representatives, vrho were called the Five-men (die 
~Fiinfer) y in whose hands the whole police and admi- 
nistration of the village was vested. The Prince, as 
sixth-man, presided, in the person of his head forester. 
The election was preceded by divine service, and fol- 
lowed by a dinner, at which the clergyman always 
formally claimed the right to give his opinion in all 
the proceedings of the new Five -men, connected with 
morals and religion; — a claim which the peasants 
silently admitted, but which the Prince's commis- 
sioner, before whom the election took place, as in- 
variably refused to acknowledge. The Fiinfer met 
every Sunday after church, in a little house in the 
churchyard destined to that purpose ; and whenever 
the business required the presence of any of the other 
parishioners, the clerk called out aloud at the end of 
divine service, " Let every man who belongs to the 
parish remain standing" — (Wer zur Gemeinde gehort, 
der bleibe stair' n.) 

We should like to know whether there remains any 
memory of this curious and interesting little fragment 
of free communal institutions, in a country which is 
now the classic land and paradise of " Beainten." 
Whatever may be its other diversities, there is scarcely 



LEGENDS. 



123 



any part of Germany, in which the idea of political 
power, underived from the Government- would not 
appear one of the wildest and most mischievous of 
dreams. 

A less edifying sort of freedom was that enjoyed by 
the Free people (Freileute) ; wandering gangs, who 
seem to have had many of the attributes of gipsies ; — 
the lawless life, the pipe and tabor, and the stealing 
of children. 

Curious vestiges of fist-law existed even among the 
peasantry ; such as the wild violence with which the 
bride was seized at her father's door by the bride- 
groom and his friends on horseback, and carried off 
to her future home, full gallop, and holding a hen 
decked with long fluttering ribands, struggling and 
screaming, in her arms. 

Nor were the village stories, the Sagen, extinct. 
People still told of the wonderful great serpents 
(Unken) that lived peacefully under the peasant's roof, 
drank milk with the children out of their pot, wore 
crowns on their heads (which they laid aside when 
they played with them), and discovered hidden trea- 
sures to godly women. The favourite hero of the 
peasants was Hans Daumling — Anglice, Tom Thumb 
— whose usual post of observation was the ear of his 
father's plough-horse. Can anybody calculate the 

g 2 



124 



THE HUNGARIAN CASTLE. 



amount of human enjoyment produced by a fairy 
tale ? Like the winds, its origin is often beyond our 
ken ; we know not whence it comes,, nor whither it 
goes. All we do know is, that it leaves freshness, 
fertility, and fragrance, wherever it passes. Incom- 
parable Tom ! type and symbol of the triumph of in- 
telligence over brute strength ! how joyfully do we 
meet you again among the simple and good-natured 
Swabian peasants ! 

Our author's early life was that of a man who has 
to depend on his wits. It was as full of variety and 
adventure as that of Gil Bias, of whose lax morality 
and biting sarcasm he not unfrequently reminds us. 
After studying three years at J ena, he went to Vienna 
to seek his fortune ; there he found plenty of amuse- 
ment, but no employment that suited him, and at 
length accepted the situation of tutor to the only 
daughter of an Hungarian Magnate. He accompa- 
nied his little pupil and her mother to their castle, 
hard by the foot of the Carpathians. The description 
of the life led there is not only very amusing, but 
throws some light on that curious structure of so- 
ciety, wherein the elements of liberty and slavery, 
which for centuries stood side by side in rude and 
abrupt antagonism, are now gradually incorporating 



HUNGARY. 



125 



into one fermenting mass. The conquering caste, 
encamped in the midst of a subjugated and op- 
pressed population, is beginning to feel that the de- 
mands of man — whether Magyar or Slavonian — are 
no longer to be resisted. Already some of the most 
exalted in rank, and all the most eminent in intel- 
ligence among them, are beginning to cease to con- 
found Freedom with Privilege. Opposed on many 
points to the Court of Vienna, — whose great ob- 
ject it has ever been to obliterate every trace of the 
principle of self-government, — they are not less op- 
posed to the rabble of their own class and nation, 
w r hose only idea of liberty is, exemption from the 
common duties and burdens of a citizen. As against 
this latter party, our sympathies are rather with 
the Austrian Government ; which, narrow and im- 
perfect as are its views of the interests of humanity, 
is yet the sole barrier between the Slavonic popula- 
tion, and that ruthless oppression which results from 
the antipathies of race combined with the arrogance 
of rank With the party which, in asserting its 

* I once said to a Magyar of high station, "Your countrymen 
say you are unpatriotic, — you lean to the Austrian Government." "I 
do so," he said, " because the very little that is done for the miserable 
people is done by the Grovernmeut." The relation in which the Ma- 
gyar, stood to the Slavonic population in Hungary, was not much 
unlike that of the Saxon to the Celtic in Ireland, in the palmy days 
of Protestant ascendency. 



126 



THE HUNGARIAN CASTLE. 



own rights, does not forget the sacred and urgent 
claims of the subject race, we can of course — as men 
and Englishmen — only have sympathy as strong as 
our hopes of their final success"*. 

To return to the Hungarian castle. Our author 
travelled with a Vienna music-master. They were 
met on the road by the Baron's house-steward, Domi- 
nus Sztlanay de eodem, who embarrassed our hero by 
addressing him in Latin. Great was the joy in the 
castle at the arrival of the young tutor : " They had 
long been tired of the old one, who wore a wig, and 
could not waltz. " All the female hands were set in 
motion to put him into Hungarian costume. The 
lady's maids eagerly undertook his education, and 
laughed heartily at his attempts to imitate the Szrd, 
Smst, and Wlk, which ran so glibly over their 
tongues, and which form the Shibboleth of Hungary. 

" The whole household, down to the lowest lackey 
and kitchen-maid, were of good Hungarian nobility f ; 
even the cowherd and the shepherd of the lord's farm 

* This was printed in 1843, and was suggested by recent conversa- 
tions with. Hungarians, and Germans who had resided in Hungary. 
Those hopes — the hopes of the patriots who were labouring for the 
improvement of Hungary — have since been blasted by the storm of 
revolution. 

t Noble is here, of course, only synonymous with Frank — free- 
born. One of the stokers on board the Elbe steamer was, as the 
captain told us, an Hungarian noble. 



THE LORD OF THE CASTLE. 



127 



wore swords as marks of their rank. Noble domes- 
tics in the house of a magnate were as little extraordi- 
nary as a noble page or chamberlain with us : but it 
was not permitted to beat them; and the meanest 
maid- servant of noble blood was allowed a chair in a 
court of justice to sit on during her trial. The house 
was very spacious : not in comfortable separate cham- 
bers, but in vast rooms, containing many beds, which 
were often occupied in an evening by twenty or thirty 
unexpected guests. No traveller of condition ever 
thinks of going to an inn. The evening was spent in 
dancing and play. The table w^as prodigal and luxu- 
rious. Behind the chairs of master and mistress stood 
Pandours with great bunches of feathers, which they 
constantly agitated to refresh the air. The superior 
dependants (Beamten) , and even the sons, rise from 
table in the middle of dinner, and take their place 
behind the chair of the master or mistress of the 
house, till, after a few dishes have been handed, the 
latter look round, give their hand to the attendant to 
kiss, and permit him to resume his seat, when another 
takes his place." 

Lang had every reason to be satisfied with the 
kindness of the noble mother, and the docility and 
talents of the daughter ; but unfortunately the lord 
of the castle had an insatiable passion for nine -pins, 



128 



THE SERVIAN CASTLE. 



and the sacrifices of time and patience which he 
exacted of the tutor for the gratification of this taste 
were at length insupportable. His humours (though 
of the mildest sort) , bred by uncontrolled power, were 
disagreeable and fantastic enough. He had a fine 
library, out of which he never would suffer his 
daughter's tutor to take a book. In one or two 
fortunate moments Lang succeeded in obtaining the 
loan of one : in half- an -hour the Baron sent for it 
back, alleging, " that the sight of a gap on his book- 
shelves gave him a headache." 

Lang's announcement of his resolution to go was 
received with grief and consternation by all the fa- 
mily; and even the Baron tried to induce him to re- 
call it, promising, among other improvements of his 
condition, an entire deliverance from the nine-pin 
bondage. But all would not do. 

Before we leave these eastern regions, we shall 
give a brief outline of our author's description of 
the castle of a Servian noble, about a hundred 
miles (English) from Belgrade; though it occurs at 
a later period of the Memoirs. He was sent from 
Vienna on the business of a noble family, whose es- 
tates lay in Slavonia proper, or, as he calls it, the 
kingdom of Slavonia; in the midst of the horrible 
and pestiferous marshes formed by the overflowings 



THE SLAVONIAN PEASANT. 



129 



of the Danube and the Drave. Quitting this deadly 
region, where the whole air was charged with putre- 
faction, he visited Belgrade, and on his way back 
was hospitably entertained by the father of a Yice- 
gespann with wdiom he had made acquaintance in 
that city. 

u At four in the morning," says he, " the old lord 
called up his lieges with a speaking-trumpet : — Domine 
Pater ! surgas ! Domine Provisor ! Domine Cancel- 
lista Frumentarie ! surgas ! He did not desist till 
he saw through the windows the glimmering of their 
newly-lighted candles, or till he was greeted in return 
by the morning salutation — Salve, Domine perillus- 
tris ! In half an hour they were all assembled round 
him to receive their orders for the day. 

" The castle stood in the midst of a swamp, where 
nothing vegetable was to be found but rushes and 
Indian corn; and nothing animal, but herds of swine 
and wolves. To keep off the latter, every evening as 
soon as it was dark a great fire was lighted in the 
castle-court, by which five-and-twenty Pandours kept 
watch all night. As a precaution against bands of 
robbers from the Turkish frontier, all the doors were 
strongly barred, and arms loaded every night/' 

" The Slavonian peasant seemed to me little better 
than half swine, half wolf. He works little, and 

g 3 



130 



THE CROATIAN PEASANT. 



drinks and sleeps away most of his time. When he 
has nothing in the house to eat, he goes to the swamp, 
catches a pig, kills it, and roasts it whole. Every one 
who enters the house cuts off what he likes, and this 
goes on till it is quite putrid." 

At length our author quitted these barbarous re- 
gions, in company with several other travellers. " We 
were," said he, " all crowded into a carriage toge- 
ther, the Dominus spectahilis, the Domini perillustres, 
myself — Dominus clarissimus, — and several Domini 
humanissimi. Arrived at the place where they were 
to stop, the drivers and Pandours who escorted us, 
dragged all the luggage out of the carriage, kissed 
our coats, knelt down to ask us for a trinkgeld, and, 
as soon as they had got it, set off back again." 

This was the state of things in 1790. In 1842 we 
happened to travel with a Mecklenburger who had 
lived some years in Agram, the capital of Croatia, and 
was returning to Mecklenburg with his Hungarian 
wife. We lament to say, that his description of the 
peasantry of that country was little more consolatory 
than this. He said it was no uncommon thing to see 
a peasant bring his whole crop into the town, sell it, 
take the money to a public-house, and never move 
from the spot till he had drunk out the whole produce 
of his harvest. 



GERMAN IMITATIONS OF FRANCE. 131 

Lang's next employment was that of private secre- 
tary to Baron von Biihler, Wiirtemberg Minister at 
the Court of Vienna. His pay was here, as well as 
in his last place, two hundred gulden CM. (about 
£20) a-year, and free quarters in the house. " My 
new master/' says he, "received me in his powder 
mantle, with flowing hair, and a piece of wire in his 
hand, with which he kept incessantly arranging his 
head-dress."' The Baron was a widower. His house- 
hold consisted of a French governess to his little son, 
a child of two years old, already ensign in the Rus- 
sian body-guard ; a French abbe, and a valet of the 
same nation. Our readers have seen that Prince 
Wallerstein's note (propria many) to Johann Lang, 
was written in French ; and incidents scattered 
throughout the whole of this work — as indeed through 
all Memoirs of the time — show to what a degree 
the higher classes in Germany had sunk their own 
nationality in that of France. Lang says, that Prince 
Kaunitz, one of the most extraordinary men that 
Germany has produced, never spoke any other lan- 
guage than French. " He loved," says he, " that his 
guests should talk freely at his table, and was glad 
to have artists and men of letters — that is to say, if 
they were French" 

So thoroughly had the desire to imitate what was 



132 



GERMAN COURTS . 



known or imagined of Parisian society pervaded the 
higher classes of Germany, that we even find Jacobs 
complaining, among other vexations attending his si- 
tuation as private secretary to the Duke, that he had 
to conduct a very active correspondence with Paris, 
sometimes with the most insignificant persons, and 
on the most frivolous subjects: — "to M. Michalon 
about periwigs, to M. Kreusler about coats; — all with 
an expenditure of wit and turns of style, which, to my 
feelings, were little consonant with the dignity of a 
German prince." 

And, let it be remembered, at the very time that 
the Duke of Gotha could think it worth his while to 
expend his wit on Paris tailors and perruquiers, the 
German Courts were, as towards their own subjects, 
the ideal of absurd pretension and intolerable con- 
straint. It is within the memory of many living, that 
the mere fact of being about the person of the Sove- 
reign of Saxony conferred a social importance superior 
to any other, whether of birth, rank, wealth, or per- 
sonal merit. What a contrast do the records of that 
Court afford, to the simple tastes, the kindly man- 
ners, the humane sympathies, the respect for merit 
and genius, of which we have ourselves been eye and 
ear witnesses ! 

The lesson which the higher classes of Germany 



DIPLOMATIC STYLE. 



133, 



afterwards received from the country of their pre- 
dilection, however rudely given, was well worth the 
purchase. The emancipation of the national mind 
from this self-imposed foreign yoke preceded — as it 
must always do — the act of deliverance from the 
pressure of physical force ; and it is the completeness 
of the former, which is the guarantee for the perma- 
nency of the latter. This is the important fact which 
distinguishes the present, from the past state of Ger- 
many*. 

Lang relates many anecdotes which prove that the 
higher classes in Germany w r ere grossly ignorant of 
their own language. He gives specimens of the ridi- 
culous orthography of one of his ministerial masters. 
The folloY/ing passage affords us some insight into his 
Wiirtemberg Excellency's conceptions of his native 
tongu \ Every post-day Lang had to prepare a de- 
spatch, the matter of which was given him by the 
Baron. "In about an hour," says he, "I brought it 
him as he was sitting at his toilet. Looking alter- 
nately in the looking-glass and the despatch, he 
smiled incessantly and called out, ' That's right ! 
good ! capital ! charming ! excellent V But when he 

* The old tendency towards a blind and servile imitation of 
France has since broken out in another form, and in other classes, 
than those alluded to above. 



134 



THE WURTEMBERG DXPLOMATE. 



read a copy of the same despatch an hour or two after- 
wards^ he exclaimed at the very same passages, c No 
— oh dear no ! Good God, what is this ? Quite the 
contrary ! How ill expressed ! 9 Then he let his 
hands fall, sank back in his armchair, and said with 
a sigh, £ How unfortunate am I to have a secretary 
who cannot even write German ! 9 On one occasion 
I was led by my wounded self-love to show him the 
Jena critique of a little book I had written, which 
especially praised my style. The Baron started from 
his chair, and exclaimed angrily, c What does that 
signify ? That is learned German — you may under- 
stand that, for aught I know ; but that will never be 
ministerial German' — (Das ist, meine Lebenzeit, kein 
Minister-Deutsch.) 9} 

The following story is good : — the peep into the 
diplomacy of the eighteenth century is still better. 
" Once, at two o'clock in the morning, the valet 
knocked at my door, and called out hastily, ' Mon- 
sieur Lang, son Excellence desire vous parler dans ce 
moment/ I hurried to his room, to learn what im- 
portant event had occurred. The Baron opened the 
door to me, and said, ' Monsieur Lang, I have re- 
marked for some time that you don't put your dots 
exactly over your i's ; they are always too far either 
to the right or left. I have intended several times 



GERMAN DIPLOMACY. 



135 



to tell yon of this ; and, as it has now occurred to 
me in bed, I had yon called, that I might not for- 
get it again/ " 

A conrier arrived one night from Stuttgart. Not 
only had Lang seen him in his great boots, but the 
bulletins of the day announced that " Son Excellence, 
M. le Baron de Biihler, ministre plenipotentiary de 
S. A. Monseigneur le Due de Wiirteniberg, avoit 
recu la nuit passee un courier, qui a remis des de- 
peches de sa Cour d'une tres-haute importance," etc. 
The Baron not only did not, as usual, show the de- 
spatch to his secretary, but preserved the most impe- 
netrable silence as to its contents. This piqued Lang's 
curiosity so much that he watched his opportunity, 
and at length contrived to steal a glance at the impor- 
tant document. It was as follows : — " My dear Baron 
Biihler, — By the present courier, my private se- 
cretary Pistorius, I send you a shoe of my princely 
consort (filrstliche Gemahlhi), with the request that 
you will cause twelve pair to be made according to 
this pattern, by the most experienced shoemaker in 
Vienna ; but with such expedition that the same cou- 
rier can bring them back in time for the next great 
assembly on the — inst. As the present letter has no 
other object than the above, we are," etc. 

It is not very surprising that our author conceived 



136 



THE PRINCESS LEYEE. 



tlie greatest contempt for his employer. Indeed, his 
estimate of the art, or arts, of what was then called 
diplomacy and of the character and intellect of the 
corps of whom Baron von Buhler was a member, seems 
to have been as low as can well he imagined. Such 
being the state of his feelings, he willingly accepted 
an invitation from the Prince of Oettingen-TTaller- 
stein to become his private secretary. 

Leaving the mean and ridiculous commerage of the 
diplomatic circle at Vienna, the scene now shifts to 
the court of an Immediate (reichsunmiitelbarer) Prince 
at the end of the last century ; a form of human 
things now for ever departed. " Every morning/ 3 
says Lang, " at eleven, (if we had luck,) or oftener at 
two, we had to attend the Prince's levee. As soon 
as the groom of the chambers opened the doors, all 
those who had been waiting in the anteroom for 
horns entered ; the Marshal, the Stallmeister (master 
of the horse', the private physician, we secretaries, 
the count Jcigers, and any strangers who happened to 
be there. The Prince was under the hands of the 
hairdresser. Every one to whom he particularly ad- 
dressed himself, racked his brain to invent some amu- 
sing or witty reply. As soon as he rose, all who were 
not commanded to stay retired. The Prince then 
visited the ladies of his family, heard mass, and gave 



OETTINGEX JUSTICE. 



137 



audiences till dinner, which was often late." "We 
must remark that this is an astonishing deviation 
from the usual habits of Germany, where, even now, 
early hours are almost universal. Indeed, vre can 
hardly imagine any measure so likely to exhaust the 
whole large stock of German patience, or to rouse 
the nation to a sense of intolerable wrong, as the ad- 
journment of dinner. Germans of the middle classes, 
de la vieille souche, still dine, as we once heard an 
Englishwoman say, " the first thing in the morning 
one is the usual hour, and even half-past eleven or 
twelve are not uncommon. Three o'clock is, we be- 
lieve, the dinner-hour of most of the courts. Prince 
Wallerstein's supper, however, was never served be- 
fore midnight. The wretched secretaries were often 
waiting till two, three, or four in the morning. " He 
often passed by us poor martyrs in the anteroom, as 
if he did not see us. TThen he was ready to get into 
bed, the valet told him, ' Lang is waiting f upon 
which I must go in immediately. Then I was c poor 
Lang/ and I must tell him why he had sent for me. 
As I could not of course do this, I was remanded till 
next day." 

The Prince's scheme for the administration of justice 
was curious and amusing, but too long for us to recount. 
The results maybe judged of by one anecdote. There 



138 



QUALIFICATION OF A HOFRATH. 



were often five or six different decisions of one cause, 
so that it was absolutely impossible to bring some 
affairs to an end. " I know a poor devil/' says Lang, 
" who lay for years in prison, because the magistrates 
didn't know which of the sentences before them to 
execute, — whether they should hang him as a thief, 
flog him, put him in the house of correction, send 
him out of the country, or let him go, as having un- 
dergone his term of imprisonment. At last he came 
to the best decision himself ; he broke out of prison, 
and ran away." 

One more story, and we have done with Prince 
Wallerstein. 

A Hofrath (ComeiUer de Cour), named Belli, re- 
tired. Lang immediately determined to angle for 
the vacant post. " As I approached the Prince with 
this intention, he came up to me, and asked me at 
once if I knew what had happened to him with regard 
to Belli. What should he do? Where was he to 
find such a man again ? After the most appropriate 
expressions of sympathy, I endeavoured to slide on 
to the consolatory hopes of a compensation for this 
heavy loss. A Prince of such eminent abilities could 
never fail to form efficient servants, etc. The Prince, 
assuming an air of being somewhat comforted, looked 
significantly at me, and said, £ Really, my dear Lang, 



GENERALIZATIONS. 



139 



do you think so? Shall I find such another?' De- 
termined to spring the niine, I extended my arms as 
if to meet his question, and said, 'Yes, certainly, 
your Serene Highness, yes/ — upon which he stopped 
me short with the words— ' But he must be as tall as 
Belli V I stood as if thunderstruck. Belli was above 
six feet high : the most liberal measurement could 
not raise me above five feet six inches." 

Such were the fantastic tricks played before high 
heaven by some of these " immediate" lords. It must 
be confessed that, though enough to make " angels 
weep," they are also well fitted to make vulgar mor- 
tals laugh. We beg our readers, however, not to fall 
into one of the generalizations so common in all 
countries, and conclude that our Prince was a 
fair sample of all the lesser sovereigns of Germany. 
Whatever may be said to the contrary, men really 
differ more, even in the same country, than sheep in 
a fold. But it is hard to get this truth recognized in 
fact and practice. " V ous ne brodez pas, Mademoi- 
selle?" said a French lady, some twenty years ago, to 
a friend of ours, in a circle of fair brodeases round 
a tea-table in Paris. " Non, Madame, je ne brode 
pas." "Ah! les Anglaises ne brodent pas?" "Pardon, 
Madame, ce n'est pas precisement ce que je disais," 
was our countrywoman's cautious reply. But alas ! 



140 



CORONATION OF LEOPOLD II. 



a quoi bon? Our clear neighbours have advanced 
little further : we are still c les Anglais/ who all are, 
and think, and do, the same thing. Time was, nor 
long ago, when they were to us the French, who passed 
their lives in dancing and eating frogs. 

German Princes then, as now, differed widely from 
each other; but we may be sure that if there had 
not been a large share of goodness among them, — a 
large share of sympathy with their people, — love of 
the hereditary sovereign and of his house would not 
so long have been one of the strongest feelings in 
German hearts. If ever, whether by the fault of 
governors or governed, — or, as is more likely, by both 
united, — this loyal and indulgent attachment to the 
Landesvater be rooted out, the country will be launched 
on that stormy and trackless sea on which France has 
so long been tossed. 

The most remarkable incident of Lang's life, during 
the time he was in the service of Prince Waller-stein, 
was his mission to Frankfurt at the coronation of the 
Emperor Leopold II. The description of this ceremony 
is one of the most characteristic passages of the book, 
and we must give it entire. We have alluded to it 
before, as the reverse of the beautiful medal struck by 
Goethe. The eye of the poet clothed the obsolete, the 
worn-out, and the unmeaning, with all their pristine 



THE COUNTS OF PAPPENHEIM. 141 



grandeur and historical significance. "We shall here see 
the scene, stripped bare to the sad and sordid reality, 
as it presented itself to a man of cold imagination, 
completely desillusionne, and alive only to the absurd, 
the useless, and the incongruous. 

Lang was sent to Frankfurt by Prince Wallerstein, 
who was head of the Swabian Counts* league [Graf en- 
bund) . His business was to report to the Prince all 
that passed, especially ail that concerned the interest 
of the smaller States ; cc among which the Counts of 
the Empire had particularly at heart the permission 
to use the predicate, We/' etc. 

"I was particularly recommended/* says he, "to 
another Swabian count, the hereditary Truchsess 
(Sewer) of the Empire, Count Truchsess- Waldburg, 
and to Herr Regierungsrath Pietsch, the deputy of 
the Counts of the Wetter au. Both of them imme- 
diately laid claim to me ; the former, to act as a sort 
of Ceremoniarius, or, as it is called, Gentilhomme, to 
him at the ceremony ; the latter, to protocolize the 
business of the Counts. I had a special Protectorium 
from the hereditary Marshal of the Empire. 

" The first highly important affair that came under 
my hands was an attempt of the Hereditary Lord 
Marshal, Count Pappenheim, to procure that the 
young counts of Pappenheim might be included 



142 



COUNTS OF THE EMPIRE. 



among those young counts who have the honour to 
carry the dishes to the Imperial Coronation table. 
This however threw all the States of the whole body 
of Counts of the Empire (to which couriers and esta- 
fettes were instantly despatched in every direction) 
into no small confusion and dismay; seeing that, 
without prejudice to the personal dignity of the Lords 
Counts of Pappenheim, their dominion was no ge- 
nuine Reichsgrafschaft (County of the Empire), but 
only a Reichsritterschaft (Knightship of the Empire) . 

" I was therefore charged to communicate to the 
old Hereditary Lord Marshal an answer to the follow- 
ing effect : — ( That though the collective body of the 
Counts of the Holy Roman Empire would joyfully 
and willingly offer their dutiful allegiance to the He- 
reditary Lord Marshal, in case he were elected Em- 
peror of Germany and King of the Romans, they 
could by no means admit, or consent to, his exorbitant 
demand (the consequences of which were too weighty 
to be calculated or foreseen) ; viz. that his sons and 
nephews should be allowed to carry the dishes and 
wait at the Imperial table, either now or at any future 
time whatsoever/ 

c( If I had hoped to see the approaching show in 
peace, I should have been greatly disappointed. In 
the midst of the night, another fearful storm broke 



THE THIRTY-SEVENTH DISH. 



143 



out, and I was called up and obliged to hurry to Offen- 
bach, where the Count's deputation was sitting. The 
office of the Imperial kitchen had sent a list of the 
dishes, — if I mistake not, thirty-seven in number, — 
to be communicated to those Counts of the Empire to 
whom belonged the high office of setting them on the 
table. jNow, ever since the days of Carolus Magnus, 
— or perhaps a little later, — the invariable laws and 
traditions of the Empire required, that the first dish 
should be borne by a Sw r abian, the second by a Wet- 
terauer, the third by a Eranconian, and the fourth 
(and of course last) by a Westphalian, Count. But 
according to this rotation, the thirty-seventh, the last 
of all, would come round again to a Swabian Count; 
whereat all the Swabians present, who had come as 
bearers of St. George's shield at the ceremony, broke 
out in the most violent indignation; while, at the 
same time, no other Estate of the Empire would un- 
dertake this thirty- seventh dish. Little seemed to be 
wanting to bring matters to a civil war of Reichs- 
grafen. The imperial kitchen absolutely refused to 
leave out the fatal thirty-seventh dish ; for which it 
was not to be blamed, since it could quote all the 
lists of dishes from Emperor Rudolf to the present 
time. At length came, as if from heaven, the inge- 
nious idea of dividing this dish into four little ones ; 



144 



THE INVESTITURE. 



whereupon the last fell, as it ought to do, to a West- 
phalian. 

" As GentilJiomme to the hereditary Lord Sewer of 
the Empire, I had to take part in the procession, and 
could thus see this piece of Israelitish pomp at my 
ease, and close to me. The imperial robes and rega- 
lia looked as if they had been picked up at an old- 
clothes fair ; the crown, as if the most bungling cop- 
persmith had made it, and stuck it with pebbles and 
bits of glass ; on the pretended sword of Charlemagne 
was the double -tailed lion — the arms of Bohemia. 
The degrading ceremonial, according to which the 
Emperor has every moment to rise up and sit down, 
to be dressed and undressed, smeared with oil and 
then wiped, clean again — to lay himself on the ground 
at the feet of the Bishops, with hands and feet ex- 
tended, and remain there, was just the same in the 
main as that at the investiture of the meanest men- 
dicant friar. 

" The most ridiculous incident in the whole cere- 
mony was, that a Bishop, with a charming nasal 
twang, addressed the question in Latin to the quire 
in the organ-loft, whether they would really ' Serenis- 
simmn Dominum, Dominum Leopoldurn, in regem ha- 
bere V Whereupon the assenting leader of the quire 
nodded his head, flourished his fiddlestick vehemently, 



THE BANQUET. 



145 



while the chorister boys and girls sang out at the 
highest pitch of their voices, Fiat, Fiat, Fiat ! And 
so, as there seemed to be no opposition to dread on 
the part of these little ladies and gentlemen, the 
crown was hastily put on the Emperor's head, and a 
great flourish of trumpets ensued. 

"After the Emperor, seated on a bare wooden 
throne, which looked like a hen-roost, had received 
the congratulations and homage of the Bishops in 
every possible form of knee-and-back-bending, and 
was lost in a cloud of incense burnt under his very 
nose, the candidates for the knighthood were called 
out, and among them, first and foremost, a Dalberg^, 
who was standing ready in a theatrical costume. 

"From the church, the Emperor, dressed in his 
shabby mantle, took his way to the Rathhaus, fol- 
lowed by a crowded and disorderly procession. He 
walked in his old imperial slippers over boards co- 
vered with red cloth, which the people, kneeling on 
the ground with knives in their hands, cut away so 
close to his heels, that they nearly threw him down. 

" Next came the Imperial banquet at the Romer, 
at which the Duke of Mecklenburg posted himself 
at the door, with a long knife in his hand, and a white 

* Lang says " the real Dalbergs " were extinct as early as the year 
1315, when the Chamberlain of Worms took the name. 

H 



146 



THE SYMBOL. 



napkin before his breast, — the ( durehiauchtigster' 
carver to the c Allerdurchlauchtigster/ The Truchsess, 
in a Spanish dress, with flowing hair and gold mantle, 
then proceeded on horseback to a wooden booth in the 
market-place, in which an ox was roasted whole. His 
whole retinue followed in state liveries, and the so- 
called four gentilshommes, of whom I was one, two 
on each side of his horse. I had to carry the Spanish 
hat, with blue and white feathers, and my companion 
a great silver dish. While the Truchsess remained 
seated on horseback, we gentilshommes had to stand 
in the booth, close to the infernal fire, and in the pes- 
tilential stench of the roasting ox ; we had then to cut 
out a half- raw piece, and carry it on the silver plate 
before the Count. Just as we turned to go, the raga- 
muffins began to quarrel for the gilded horns, and in 
the struggle the whole wooden kitchen came down 
with a crash, — probably as a symbol of what was soon 
to befall the Holy Roman Empire. At the door of 
the dining-hall the Truchsess took the dish in his 
own hands, and kneeling, set this fragrant dainty 
under the nose of the Emperor, plagued on every side 
with some grotesque absurdity. 

cc Nothing could be a truer picture of the condi- 
tion of the Empire, sunk into a cold petrified dotage, 
than this carnival mummery of an imperial coro- 



THE HTTLDIGUNG. 



147 



nation in tawdry rags. The next day, when it was 
no longer necessary to consult the sibylline books of 
the Golden Bull, people went to stare at the II ul- 
digung in the Hessian camp, and the fireworks in the 
splendid barges of the Ecclesiastical Electors. Wild 
boars were driven in from every corner in honour of 
the King of Hungary. The swarms of German pro- 
fessors and doctors who had flocked hither, almost 
fought for the wet sheets of the new Capitulations, 
in their eagerness to see at what passage a comma 
had been changed into a semicolon; and some even 
boasted that they had brought about this important 
event. When I say that the Elector of Mainz alone 
brought a retinue of fifteen hundred people, among 
whom there were a wet-nurse and a capon-crammer, 
it may be imagined that there was no want of sensual 
enjoyments of every kind and degree. The day usually 
finished with high gambling." 

It is not without some misgivings that we have 
translated this passage, which seems to throw con- 
tempt and ridicule on one of the most venerable and 
(in the best sense of the word) conservative principles 
in our nature, — the sentiment of historical grandeur, 
— of the sanctity of the chain which binds together 
successive generations; — a sentiment which is no- 
where more pervading than in England. But if, as a 

h 2 



148 



REVERENCE FOR THE PAST. 



Frenchman once said to us, "En Angleterre on se casse 
le nez contre le moyen age" it is because le moyen age 
has bequeathed to us something that has an enduring 
principle of life; and, like all living and organic bo- 
dies^ a principle of gradual evolution and appropriate 
change. Ceremonies that have no root in the popular life, 
— that stand detached from the Present, its interests 
and its cares, by the abyss of time, must die. It is 
their connection with institutions still respected, still 
useful, that gives meaning and sanctity to every cere- 
mony or garb so long used to adorn a body, of which 
the most insignificant of us feels that he is a living, 
moving member. If the Empire had not been already 
a disorganized body, in which the principle of life was 
extinct, it would not have crumbled to dust and ashes, 
as it did, before the first rude assault from without. 

We began by saying that we are no admirers of the 
tone of this author's mind. We have no sympathy 
whatever with persons of his stamp, who have an eye 
only for the grotesque and the deformed. But, it must 
be considered, that if the propensity to degrade the ve- 
nerable and to deface the lovely is an odious and base 
one, the contrary propensity, — to cover the feeble and 
rotten |with stately folds ; to deck vice with wreaths 
or with gems • to perpetuate mischievous illusions ; 
to exalt the glittering at the expense of the useful ; 



CONGRESS OF RASTADT. 



149 



in short, to excite and arm the imagination of man 
against his reason, — is, if not as unamiable, at least 
as mischievous. It is unfortunate too that poetry 
and sentiment have erected so many altars to false 
gods. They have joined with pride and selfishness, 
to exalt the powerful and to trample on the lowly ; to 
adorn the ravagers of the earth, and to bring neglect 
and contempt on its benefactors; to throw a halo 
round those who already " enjoy the bright day" of 
fortune, and to deepen the shadows round those who 
sit in the darkness of ignorance and poverty. While 
therefore we detest and hold far from us the poor and 
envious spirit which has no veneration for the Great 
and no love for the Beautiful, we must not suffer our- 
selves to be imposed on by words ; but examine whe- 
ther that which claims respect is not in fact merely 
an object of fear, and that which professes to be beau- 
tiful is not merely glittering. If they will not stand 
this examination, the sooner they are stripped of a 
false character the better : we shall have the more 
veneration to spare for the truly good. 

From the last hollow pageant of the Empire, the 
transition is as easy as it is melancholy to its tragical 
and disgraceful dismemberment. The account of the 
Congress of Rastadt is, historically considered, by far 
the most interesting part of the book. It is much too 



150 



COUNT VON HARDENBERG. 



long for insertion. We can give but a faint idea of 
the general impression of moral degradation and men- 
tal imbecility, of shameless rapacity and absolute in- 
difference to public interests, which the whole picture 
is calculated to produce. We clearly perceive the 
rottenness of the whole body ; — we see that it needed 
no giant's hand to pull down a fabric tottering with 
age, and undermined by the reptiles which burrowed 
under its walls. 

After Lang had quitted the service of Prince Wal- 
lerstein in disgust, he went to complete his studies 
at Gottingen, then the most celebrated university in 
Europe for all the branches of knowledge necessary 
to an accomplished archivist. Here he attracted the 
notice of a man who was destined afterwards to play 
a conspicuous part in the reconstruction of the new 
political edifice of Germany, — Count (afterwards 
Prince) von Hardenberg, then minister at Ansbach : 
which, as our readers may recollect, had been sold by 
its last Margrave to Prussia. Lang's first connection 
with this eminent statesman was of a private nature. 
The reputation he had acquired at Gottingen for 
historical learning and acuteness, induced the Count 
to engage him to arrange the archives of the Har- 
denberg family, deposited at their ancient seat near 
Gottingen. 



SCHLOSS HARDENBERGr. 



151 



" Schloss Hardenberg, called the Vorderhaus (Front- 
house) Hardenberg," says Lang, "is a modern building, 
in front of which are the extensive offices, and behind 
it a little park, with no ornament of flower-garden, 
shrubberies, or greenhouses ; but ringing with the 
songs of innumerable nightingales. A little further 
backward rise the picturesque ruins of the old fortress 
of Hardenberg, with the venerable inscription, Verbum 
Domini manet in sternum. At the foot of the hill on 
which this stands, are the farm-buildings, called the 
Hinterhaus (Back-house) of the elder line of Harden- 
berg, whose head, universally known as the old ' Graf 
Hans* (Count Jack), resided about a league off, in the 
convent of Marienstein, which he hired. Near Har- 
denberg Castle lies the small town of Norten, through 
which passes the high-road, — a little Catholic island 
in the midst of a Protestant population; with a Catho- 
lic endowment, two Hardenberg employes, an apothe- 
cary, at whose shop we assembled to drink a glass of 
wine together, a Rathskeller (Town-hall), a physician 
belonging to the c J urisdiction/ and a tax-gatherer. 
At the end of the little town lay the e Harclenberger 
Krug/ a public-house, greatly frequented by the Got- 
tingen world. The rental of that part of the Harden- 
berger lordship, or, as the local expression has it, 
Jurisdiction (Gerichf), which belonged to the Minister, 



152 



PRINCE HARDENBERG. 



was about 30,000 gulden (£3000) a year. The Vor- 
derhaus had the right of fetching out of the common 
forest as much wood daily as nine asses could carry, 
for its own consumption." 

This primitive scene was suddenly enlivened by the 
arrival of the Minister, with a retinue of cooks, valets, 
councillors [Rathe), jagers, etc.; and the quiet country- 
seat was transformed into a little "Residenz." Lang's 
description of his celebrated employer corresponds with 
all we have heard and read regarding him. Amiable, 
agreeable, generous and dissolute, he inspired even a 
man so little accessible to kindly emotions as our 
author, with affection ; while, on the other hand, his 
vast abilities, and eminent services to Prussia, could 
not protect him from the stern and contemptuous 
disapprobation of such judges as the pure and austere 
Stein. 

While exploring the Hardenberg archives, Lang, as 
he assures us, stumbled upon the following delicious 
document, which we shall translate for our readers: — 

"In the reign of Count Hildebrand Christoph 
von Hardenberg (b. 1645), a courtly tone, hitherto 
unknown, was introduced. Servants, dress, ceremo- 
nies, even education, assumed from this time a lux- 
urious air. In former times, when a Hardenberg 
rode to the yearly fair in the neighbouring town, he 



" RULES FOR HOUSE AND COURT." 153 

was attended by one groom ; but sturdy fellows in 
gay clothes, standing behind a coach, handing about 
dishes and changing plates, was a sight yet unseen by 
any mortal born and bred in the Long Forest (Lang- 
forst) . The new lacqueys themselves knew not how 
to behave in their unwonted elevation. Order, clean- 
liness, and decorous manners had to be beaten into 
them, by means of unheard-of severity. Steward, 
valet, pages, lacqueys, grooms, coachman, and stable- 
boys, composed the retinue of our Statthalter, as long 
as he resided at the Court of Wolfenblittel. 

ce rpj^ ( jjujgg f or House and Court/ according to 
which his Excellency the Lord Statthalter commands 
his people to conduct themselves, given the 10th March, 
1666, begin by declaring to his servants that they are 
all rude, unpolished, stupid, and inattentive fellows ; 
to whom he is now, with fatherly care, going to give 
the following rules for the government of their lives 
and manners ; at the same time telling them that he 
shall take care to make them remember any departure 
therefrom. Thus, for example, he who can give no 
account of the sermon, shall eat his dinner like a dog, 
lying on the ground ; whoever swears, shall kneel for 
an hour on the sharp edge of a plank. Whoever 
neglects to take the Lord's Supper when it is no- 
tified to him, shall ride upon an ass loaded with 

h 3 



154 



"rules for house and court." 



heavy weights, or receive a flogging, as circumstances 
may be. 

" Domestic thieves are promised the gallows. Who- 
ever peeps into a letter, even if it lies open, shall have 
the bastinado three days running, and be sent out of 
the house as infamous." 

We particularly admire the delicate sense of honour 
which the Herr Statthalter sought to produce, by the 
severe chastisement awarded to the latter offence. 
But what a pity the Herr Statthalter had not the 
composing of a set of c Rules and Regulations } for 
the conduct of the servants of government in this 
matter, in several States rather larger than Harden-' 
berg, or even Wolfenbiittel ! What a pity he could not 
have administered a little of his corroboratives to 
honesty, to persons a little higher than lacqueys, who 
are said, even in these our days, to have an unconquer- 
able taste for peeping into letters which do not lie 
open ! But let us proceed with these exquisite Rules. 

u Before the Statthalter rises, the clothes must be 
brushed clean, and laid in- good order on the table ; 
shoes and boots cleaned, and set under the bench ; 
fresh water and a towel must be in readiness. His 
Excellency must be most delicately (subtilstermassen) 
dressed, and what he lays aside be carefully put by . 

J " The meals are to be served in good order, without 



"rules for house and court." 155 

spilling, and the dishes to be taken away with a bow. 
If any one nibbles at things, and puts his fingers or 
his mouth into the dishes, he shall be made to eat 
scalding food to cure him of his greediness. Every 
one is bound, when called upon, to step forward, 
making a reverence, and to say grace with a clear and 
audible voice. He who stutters or hesitates shall re- 
ceive six fillips on the nose (spaniscke Nasenstuber). 
If any man waits at table with dirty hands, he shall 
do as if he were washing them, while one pours water 
over them, and another dries them with two sharp 
rods till they bleed. In like manner, he who waits 
uncombed, shall be well curried in the stable, with 
the curry-comb. 

" The tablecloth is to be spread at one cast : every 
plate to have a napkin, and the saltcellars to be filled 
with clean salt. At the proper time candles are to 
be brought, and to be constantly snuffed, every time 
beginning at the place where the highest guest sits. 
Lastly, the tablecloth is to be removed in a mannerly 
way {raanierlicli) ; and the servants are to retire with 
a reverence, under pain of six fillips on the nose. 

"Whoever mixes in the conversation, or grins at 
what is said, shall be made to blow till he is tired ; 
whoever laughs loud, shall have four raps over the 
fingers. Whoever fills a glass too full, and then sups 



156 " RULES FOR HOUSE AND COURT." 



it out with his own mouth, shall have twenty laslies 
with a whip. He who hands a dirty glass may have 
his choice between four boxes on the ear, or six fillips 
on the nose. After dinner, a basin of water and a 
clean towel is to be handed (with a bow) to every 
guest. 

" As it is a scandalous and insufferable thing for 
servants to be long at meals, those who are more than 
a quarter of an hour at dinner shall have it taken 
away from them. He who will not eat what is set 
before him, shall fast twenty-four hours. If the 
Statthalter orders a servant to do anything, and he 
neglects it, and bids another do it instead, he shall 
receive four boxes on the ear from him whom he so 
ordered ; who, in return, shall have six. 

(( If any man waits in dirty or torn clothes, he shall 
run the gauntlet. If two go to blows, they shall fight 
out their quarrel with staves, in the presence of the 
house-steward ; and he who spares the other, shall 
have a flogging. 

" If any one goes out without leave, or murmurs 
against his Lord, he may expect to be flogged, put in 
chains, or tied to a post, according to circumstances." 

It is evident that the Lord Statthalter wanted only 
the fostering sun of occasion to ripen into a full-grown 
Nero. Who that reads this document but must 



GRAF HANS. 



157 



pray with fervour to be preserved from power joined 
with impunity ? It is not to be denied that the in- 
troduction of cleanliness and order is a great work; 
and that it is attended with no slight difficulties in a 
German household, nobody will deny, who sees how 
imperfectly, two centuries after the date of the above, 
it is often accomplished. It must be confessed too, 
that some of the commands and prohibitions argue a 
state of civilization in these future valets and lacqueys, 
that rendered strong discipline indispensable. But 
one thinks with horror of entrusting the destinies of 
men to the curious ingenuity of the framer of a penal 
code like this. 

At the end of two years* research into the family 
archives, Lang had to submit the result of his labours 
to the old "Graf Hans" in person. He was alarmed 
at the prospect of this interview with the old man, 
whom he had heard represented as somewhat in the 
style of one of the rugged tyrants of former days. 
The old Count was not much enchanted with our au- 
thor's work ; would not believe that could be all he 
had written in two years, and at length exclaimed, 
f But you found that we are descended from Duke 
Wittikind V On my honest reply, that I had really 
found nothing of the kind, and that no archives in 
the world contained family documents relating to the 



158 



CONGRESS OF HAS TAD T. 



old heathen Wittikind, lie stopped me short, and told 
me to go and look in the castle at Rathenbm'g, where 
it stood inscribed over the chirnneypiece." 

The man who first raised the name of Hardenberg 
to European importance, seems not to have had a trace 
of these feudal sentiments and habits. Lang repre- 
sents him as uniformly considerate, affable, and kind 
to all his dependants. We have been diverted from 
the current of the more important political narrative 
of our author, by our desire to give our readers one 
more striking picture of German life and manners, in 
their various gradations towards humaner and more 
refined forms. No one can now reproach the higher 
classes in Germany generally, with want of humanity 
towards their inferiors. 

We return to the Congress of Sastadt, which took 
place in the year 1797. In anticipation of the dis- 
cussions there, Hardenberg (who had had evidence 
of Lang's talents and attainments) had commissioned 
him to search the archives of Ansbach for everything 
that could throw light on the claims and interests of 
Prussia. Lang executed his task so much to the Mi- 
nister's satisfaction, that he sent for him to act as 
a sort of secretary to the Prussian Embassy at the 
Congress. 

He was, of course, thrown into personal contact, 



COUNT METTERNICH. 



159 



more or less close, with all the men who figured at 
this singular assemblage. The portraits or sketches 
he has drawn of them are little flattering, and have 
no other importance than what they derive from the 
deplorable result which they all, in a greater or less 
degree, concurred to bring about. Few of them are 
sufficiently known to the English public to awaken 
any interest in the description of their follies or their 
vices. We have already said, that a more pitiable 
spectacle than the Congress, as a whole, afforded, can 
hardly be imagined. Lang calls it a " diplomatic 
puppet-show — a tragical one for Germany ! After 
describing the representatives of the Great Powers, he 
descends to those of the immediate nobles and the 
small States. Among them, we have the first glimpse 
of another of the men destined, at a later period, to 
assist in the overthrow of the giant before whom all 
knees were now beginning to bend ; — Count Metter- 
nich, son of the Imperial plenipotentiary, " then a 
young man of agreeable exterior, very polite, and 
never intrusive or arrogant; of whom nobody pre- 
dicted the great part he was hereafter to play." He 
was plenipotentiary of the Westphalian Counts. Each 
body or class of nobles was thus represented. He 
closes the list with one which is now extinct ; — for we 
will not insult a mighty shade by affecting to regard 



160 



KNIGHTS OF MALTA. 



the ridiculous assumption of its name as a continua- 
tion of its existence. Its mission had long been at 
an end; and it was already in a state of decomposition 
and decay. " The Knights of Malta, in their bright 
red uniforms, boasted of their insatiable thirst for 
Turkish blood ; they seemed however to have very 
little appetite for that of the French, and were looking 
about whether they could not get a bit of terra firma 
instead of their island. The moment it was evident 
that the hour of danger was come for the Ecclesiastical 
States, they hastened to protest that they were not ec- 
clesiastics; and as the star of Germany did not appear 
just then to be very brilliant, they were devising means 
for declaring themselves Russians." Dissolute and 
effete, tyrannous to its subjects, and useless to Europe, 
" La Religione," as the order is still oddly enough 
called in Malta, surrendered its impregnable fortress 
without a blow, and left to the peasants it had tram- 
pled upon, to display, in defence of their island, the 
heroism which was dead in the breasts of the high- 
born cavaliers. 

Lang next enumerates a vast tribe of Gelehrte 
(learned men), and concludes with this remark: — 
" The most consolatory thing for us was, that Herr 
Samhaber, professor of law at Wiirzburg, brought a 
whole cask of ink with him, which was to be shed 



ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



161 



freely in the defence of the High and Mighty Spi- 
ritual Lords." Among the " learned" we recognize 
another illustrious and ever-welcome figure. "The 
celebrated Humboldt came to visit the French mine- 
ralogist Faujas. The latter certainly had never endured 
such a fright on the most tempestuous sea, as Count 
Gorz (the head of the Prussian embassy) endured at 
his own table, when Herr von Humboldt, the invited 
guest, came in amongst the diplomatic divinities, an 
hour too late, in a frock-coat and boots, heated and 
dusty, from an inspection of the mountains of Baden. 
The Count immediately put them au fait of so un- 
heard-of an apparition, by saying in a low voice, c He 
is a Gelehrter ! ' " 

There was also the usual resort of mere idlers — 
the scum which gathers on the surface of all such 
meetings. Even in 1815, after the twenty years of 
disaster and disgrace which had passed over Ger- 
many, Talleyrand could yet say at Vienna, "Le Con- 
gres danse, mais ne marche pas." 

" It became a fashion," says Lang, " to come to 
Rastadt for a few days ; to go the round of the am- 
bassadors' dinners; to spy at Mademoiselle Hyacinthe 
(a French actress) through an opera-glass ; to risk a 
few rouleaus at the French coffee-house ; and then, 
with the list of arrivals, and Count Gorz^s valet's 



162 



SURRENDER OF MAINZ. 



receipt for iced punch in your waistcoat-pocket, to 
take your departure for the interior of open-mouthed 
Germany." 

And now began the tragedy, — the wretched dis- 
union — the treacherous defections — the fearful and 
scandalous same qui pent. Almost at the very same 
moment when the first Imperial Ambassador to the 
Congress proclaimed with solemn pomp " the integrity 
of the Empire" (which was received with surprise and 
exultation by all Germany) , the second signed the 
secret surrender of Mainz ; while the third broke out 
into bitter tears, and entreated the c Supreme Head 
of the Empire' (the favourite Austrian phrase) to en- 
deavour to prevent this same lamentable surrender. 
Congress was opened on the 8th of December, 1797, 
in the midst of the most enthusiastic hopes. On the 
30th of the same month, Mainz was delivered up to 
the French by Austria. Hardly was this done when 
the French ambassador declared (19th of January, 
1798), in a dictatorial note, that the Ehine was, 
without further delay, to be acknowledged as boun- 
dary; and ; without more ceremony, caused the Ehine 
fortifications at Mannheim to be removed (25th of 
January) . 

" Hereupon arose a universal wailing and lamenta- 
tion,, to appease which it was said, that the integrity of 



SECULARIZATION. 



163 



the Empire was not a mere physical,, but a symbolical 
and ideal, integrity ; and that, whether the Rhine was 
boundary or not, the Empire was formed by, and con- 
sisted of, the same union between its Supreme Head, 
and his most faithful Electors, Princes, and Estates; 
and that the latter would be fully indemnified for what 
they had lost. Everybody was curious to know where 
this indemnification was to come from. Those who 
were in the secret, shrugged their shoulders and 
said nothing. At length the abrupt declaration of 
the French ambassador, that the indemnity was to 
be sought in the secularization of church property, 
satisfied the public curiosity. The knot was now 
cut, and the signal for plunder given. Every great 
State laid its plan to get a bishopric, or a bit of 
one; the lesser, an abbey; the smallest nobleman, 
a benefice. The ecclesiastical ambassadors were 
looked upon as suspected ; people got out of their 
way. It rained claims for compensation for losses 
on the left bank of the Rhine, together with speci- 
fications of the precise thing wished for. Nor was 
this all : the spiritual lords, finding their represen- 
tations wholly useless, now fell out amongst them- 
selves. The bishops would be well content to give up 
the property of the convents ; the archbishops thought 
it would certainly suffice if the bishoprics were taken 



164 



PARTITION OF POLAND. 



— -in which case the three spiritual Electors might be 
allowed, for their special consolation, a little enlarge- 
ment of their territory, by the annexation of Salz- 
burg, Minister, and Fulda ; while Mainz was ready to 
say i Yes, in God's name/ to anything, if Mainz was 
but allowed to remain primate and patriarch of Ger- 
many ; for, without an Archi- Cancellarius Imperii per 
Germaniam, the beloved German Fatherland could 
not exist." 

While this deplorable scene was in progress, the 
French ambassadors looked on in silence. "Most 
probably/' says Lang, " their government had left 
them without instructions, and was too much occu- 
pied with the agitations of Paris, to think of these 
Polack doings in Germany." 

It required moral sensibilities as obtuse as those 
of Herr von Lang (as obtuse as the whole tone of his 
narrative of transactions, so fatal and disgraceful to 
his country, sufficiently proves them to be) to write 
this word. How was it that the mind of Germany 
had been familiarized with ideas of spoliation and 
dismemberment ? The idea of National Integrity, 
which all nations have an equal interest in holding 
sacred, had, in the partition of Poland, received the 
most audacious and mortal blow that ever was dealt 
to it ; for here it was not the wresting away of a 



INSULTS TO GERMANY. 



165 



province, but the annihilation of a people, that was 
aimed at. What wonder that men who had been 
actors or abettors in so fearful a crime against the 
earthly religion of man — Love of Country — were now 
to be seen, like parricidal children scrambling for the 
heritage of a murdered father ? 

But Lang was not a man to be struck with this. 
Indeed, such is the coarseness of his feelings, that he 
can make himself merry at what would have broken 
the heart of a man of any earnestness or elevation of 
soul. To complete the degrading picture, he says : — 
cc All this did not put an end to the incessant whirl of 
amusement and profligacy. The French theatre was 
a favourite resort ; and the high and mighty German 
nobles sat to see themselves caricatured and ridiculed, 
under the transparent disguise of the German porters 
and coachmen in Paris, as ces betes Allemandes, and 
their political affairs, as des querelles Allemandes" etc. 
Thence they repaired to the French coffee-house, where 
the dame du comptoir, with a characteristic mixture 
of inaptitude and impertinence, could not recollect 
barbarous German names and titles, and called one 
gentleman V Habit rouge, another Grand nez, another 
le Loup, and so on. 

We have seen enough of the voluntary prostration 
of the higher classes of Germany before French idols, 



166 



PUBLIC OPINION. 



to regard these insults as natural and merited. As 
an appropriate background to this degradation of the 
higher classes, we have the brutalizing of the lower. 
Lang says — " Early in a morning I was waked by the 
daily floggings, which the officers of the Baden regi- 
ment on duty administered to their soldiers." 

One might think that what was passing would have 
made the want of a manly public opinion obvious to 
the bluntest capacity and the coldest heart. But there 
are certain diseases of mental vision which are incu- 
rable. Lang was invited to dinner by old Count Met- 
ternich (father of the future Arch-Chancellor), and, to 
his surprise, was seated next him at table. A conversa- 
tion soon began, which rendered these unlooked-for ho- 
nours intelligible. " His Excellency lamented the un- 
happy divisions of Germany ; spoke of the wild force 
of public opinion, and of the necessity of combating, 
taming, and quieting it, by the aid of the most ho- 
nourable, intelligent and able minds that the whole 
country could furnish. ' Such men/ he said, ■ must 
act in concert, and must be vigorously supported and 
well paid, and promoted by the Government/ In 
short, a very clear, intelligible hint was given, what a 
good reception I should have, if I would desert to the 
Austrian camp. I replied briefly and drily, — ' That 
the task his Excellency wished to confide to the good 



PUBLIC OPINION. 



167 



heads of Germany, appeared to me to labour under 
this insurmountable difficulty, — that the best heads 
were just those that had opinions of their own, and 
were attached to them, and would not be easily in- 
duced to manufacture goods to order. I also thought 
that public opinion, if founded on falsehood or illu- 
sion, could not endure ; if founded on truth, it would 
eventually conquer/ This reply was received with 
evident coldness and displeasure ; and thus ended 
my invitations to dinner." 

It is extremely curious to find precisely the same 
notions still fondly and tenaciously cherished, not 
only in Austria, but even in States where one would 
expect better things. The idea that governments hold 
opinions, as iEolus does the winds, in a bag, and can 
release as much or as little of them as they like — let- 
ting loose Boreas against the enemy, and reserving the 
mild whispers of Zephyrus for themselves — is one 
which it seems almost impossible for these potentates 
to relinquish. Public opinion is subject to danger- 
ous and disgusting diseases, no doubt ; but they are 
not to be treated topically. It is only after creat- 
ing a sound state of the whole moral and intellec- 
tual frame, that the reason can be addressed with any 
hope of success ; indeed, that it can be said to exist : 
— for what is the reason of a mob ? And as to 



168 



MURDER OF THE FRENCH ENVOYS. 



appeals to the passions and prejudices which favour 
the views of those in power, what safety is to re- 
sult from them ? Are they not always a two-edged 
sword? The first step towards a sound, beneficial, 
and lasting influence on public opinion is, a reve- 
rence for the reasoning faculty which God has given 
to man ; a deep sense of its present imperfect cul- 
ture and consequent weakness ; a ceaseless and sin- 
cere endeavour to improve it ; a fervent desire that it 
may in time become a safe standard by which public 
interests and measures may be tried. But what 
godlike humanity, patience, humility, and confidence 
in truth, does this suppose ! 

It soon became evident that war was inevitable. 
On the 8th of April the Congress was dissolved. On 
the 21st, in the evening, the French Ambassadors left 
Rastadt, and were attacked, close by the gates of the 
town, by mounted soldiers, dragged out of their car- 
riage, and two out of the three killed. Jean de Brie, 
who was left for dead, recovered. Lang imputes this 
crime to the Austrians, at the instigation of the Eng- 
lish. For the latter conjecture he does not offer the 
slightest shadow of a reason; the former, he says, 
was rendered probable by the fact that the soldiers 
were Austrians. The Prussian Ambassador, Herr von 



BAVARIAN GOVERNMENT. 



169 



Dohni*, showed the natural horror and indignation of 
a man of honour at so atrocious a crime ; " for which 
he fell under the displeasure of all the great courts, 
his own not excepted." 

Such was the close of this deplorable drama. The 
aged body of the Empire, like that of iEson, was torn 
in pieces, and was now about to be submitted to that 
fiery process, out of which it was to emerge in reno- 
vated youth and strength. 

We have detained our readers so long over Lang's 
first volume, that we have little space to devote to his 
second. The events recorded in it are less impor- 
tant, and none of them agreeable. He remained in 
the' service of Prussia as long as Ansbach belonged to 
that power. When it was transferred to Bavaria, the 
employes had their choice of returning to Prussia, or 
remaining in their posts. He preferred the latter al- 
ternative. But, if his opinion of the Prussian Govern- 
ment of that period was unfavourable enough, we 
hardly remember to have read a more revolting pic- 
ture than that which he draws of the one whose service 
he entered. A large portion of the volume is filled 

* Born 1751, died 1820. Dohm was the son of a Lutheran mi- 
nister. He raised himself by his talent and probity. He took an 
active part hi public affairs, and endeavoured to avert some of the 
calamities which overwhelmed Germany. Dohm was one of those 
learned statesmen for whom Prussia has been so remarkable. 

I 



170 



MORALS IN BAVARIA. 



with anecdotes (in which the names or initials are 
given) of high official persons. To nearly every one of 
these biographical sketches, the gallows would have 
been the appropriate termination. We have robbery 
under every conceivable form of force and fraud; 
murder with the most cold-blooded and complicated 
aggravations ; brutal and boundless licentiousness ; — 
in short, it is difficult to believe in a state of society 
where men of station and eminence were such as he 
describes. We shall extract none of these stories. 
We have no means of establishing their truth or false- 
hood, .and we know what may be done by carefully 
picking out and exhibiting the worst individuals of a 
nation or a class, as fair samples of the whole ; — a 
mode of misrepresentation at present very much in 
fashion with a part of the German press, as regards 
the English aristocracy, whose general character it is 
pleased to gather from police reports, disgraceful law 
proceedings, and " fashionable novels." The exam- 
ple does not invite us, though here the selection is 
ready to our hand ; nor could we plead in our excuse 
the same profound ignorance of the higher classes of 
Germany, which evidently prevails among the writers 
in question as to those of England. We should sin 
against our own knowledge and experience of the total 
unfairness of such a picture. The only instructive 



FRENCH MARSHALS. 



171 



lesson to be gleaned from all this scandalous gossip 
is the very old one, that bad institutions act as a hot- 
bed to evil propensities. Many of the stories, as our 
readers may infer from what they have seen of the 
bent of Lang's mind, are consummately ludicrous. 
He draws unimaginable pictures of the vulgarity and 
grossness of the manners of Munich, and makes him- 
self merry at the dread which the Bavarians enter- 
tained of the "Prussian foxes," — a dread not quite 
eradicated to this hour. 

In 1806 came the French occupation of Ansbach. 
The first officer quartered in Lang's house was Gene- 
ral Maison; the second, General Bert on ; names after- 
wards, in different ways, siifficiently known to Europe. 
Bernadotte commanded in the tow T n, and frequently 
gave balls. " At one of these," says Lang, " I saw four 
marshals : Bernadotte, a very tall dark man, with fiery 
eyes under thick brows ; Mortier, still taller, with a 
long stiff pigtail, and a stupid sentinel look ; Lef evre, 
an old Alsatian camp-boy, with his lady-wife, former 
washerwoman to the regiment ; and Davoust, a little 
smooth-pated, unpretending man, who was never tired 
of waltzing." Bernadotte expressed to Lang what de- 
light he had in the business of administration ; how 
happy he had been in Hanover, where it had been his 
duty to conduct part of the business of government. 

i 2 



172 



A BAVARIAN MAJORITY. 



He said it was one of his agreeable dreams that Ans- 
bach was his own principality, and that he was des- 
tined to make it happy. Such were the early aspira- 
tions of the prudent and popular King of Sweden. 

Lang seems to have entertained a sovereign con- 
tempt for the constitutions w r hich some of the lesser 
states of Germany obtained after the expulsion of the 
French. That of Bavaria he treats as a complete 
" humbug and it must be owned that the following 
scene from the Chamber is not calculated to give us 
a very exalted idea of the securities afforded by re- 
presentative assemblies. We recommend it to all 
managers of divisions. It occurred during the earlier 
sittings of the Bavarian Stande. 

" Count Reichensburg, the president, was extremely 
anxious to cut the debates as short as possible. But 
his great dread was an equality of numbers ('paria'), 
because he was forced to recapitulate the arguments on 
both sides, and to give a casting vote. On one such 
occasion the secretary almost with terror exclaimed, 
'Your Excellency, — pariah The president turned 
as red as fire, shifted his chair from side to side, 
counted the votes, and then said, — ' It cannot be, Mr* 
Secretary; you must have made a mistake: let us 
cursorily repeat the voting/ But, alas ! again there 
were seven of a side. ' I don't understand this/ said 



BAVARIAN FUNCTIONARIES. 



173 



he ; c it seemed to me quite otherwise/ At last a cer- 
tain Herr von Effncr rose and said — ' It is true I gave 
my vote on such a side ; but I don't care about it, so 
I will go over to the other/ Upon this the president 
looked round with a face radiant with delight, and 
rubbing his hands, called out — c Excellent ! capital V 
He accused the secretary of not having rightly under- 
stood the sentiments of his honourable colleague, Herr 
von Effner ; and declared that where there was a good 
president, and affairs were well conducted, ' paria' 
could never occur ; they never happened to him ; the 
difficulty had always been cleared up by a little ex- 
planation. At going out he pressed Herr von Effner's 
hand, and said — c You dine with me today, my worthy 
colleague?' " 

Nor was our author's opinion of administrative men 
and things in Bavaria a whit higher. It is very diffi- 
cult in translation to give an idea of an anecdote, half 
the drollery of which lies in provincial phrases and 
absurd expressions. But we will try. 

" The new Divan at Munich determined to provide 
the province at Ansbach with a new pasha, and ap- 
pointed a certain Count P — — , who was regarded by 
the genuine Bavarians as an incarnation of affability 
and agreeableness. He generally received his sub- 
ordinate employes in bed, and, confused from the de- 



174 



BAVARIAN FUNCTIONARIES. 



baucheries of the night, with hearty greetings of this 
sort ;—' God be wi' ye, sow's tail ! How long ha' you 
been here ?' And when the village magistrate, en- 
chanted at the gracious reception, rose to take his 
leave — 'Ah! what are ye about? Well, I'll gi' ye 
leave to go now to look for a fresh man; but, ye 
know, you must come and ha' a bit o' a drunk with 
me.' As soon as he heard of his appointment to 
Ansbach he broke out into curses upon those 'ugly 
Prussian dogs;' and asked whether the Government 
expected him to learn the queer sort of German 
(enterisches Deutsch) the people spoke r out there/ 
The old father, bent and tottering, forced himself into 
the king's antechamber, to ask his Majesty what crime 
his son had committed, that he should be banished to 
foreign parts (ins Ausland verwiesen) . 

" In consequence of this, another protege of the 
new faction was appointed, from whom I immediately 
received the following lines : — ' I have the honour to 
acquaint you that his Majesty the King has been 
pleased to appoint me Commissary- General of the 
llczat circle. I intend to set out tomorrow (i. e. 
take care to provide the fireworks, the train of car- 
riages to meet me, and the garlands of blue flowers); 
shall be happy, etc. etc., and have the honour, etc. etc. 
— Yours.' 



BAVARIAN FUNCTIONARIES. 



175 



" But who ? — the name was utterly illegible, either 
by me, or by any of the clerks or secretaries, whom, 
in the anguish of my heart, I summoned to my aid. 
The reading most commonly adopted was Friigier. 
The whole town was in alarm ; everybody was anxious 
to advise and to help, but in vain. 

" At length the carriage rolled into the town with 
the new Commissary- General : while some sent in 
the greatest hurry for me, a most humble and obedient 
deputation was already at the carriage- door, to assure 
the newly- arrived functionary how eagerly all hearts 
had flown to meet a man whose high name and emi- 
nent reputation had so long preceded him ; they only 
took the liberty to beg that his Heriiichkeit (Lord- 
liness) would now condescend to let them hear this 
name from his own lips, since it had as yet remained 
concealed from their eager curiosity. c Concealed ?' re- 
plied his Herrlichkeit, c why I wrote it V e Unques- 
tionably you did/ replied the most obedient humble 
welcomers, 'but no one here has been bold enough 
to decipher those distinguished characters, or to in- 
terpret them in any ordinary way of reading/ c My 
name is Drechsel/ replied his Herrlichkeit with an 
air of vexation. 6 Drechsel! Drechsel P echoed the 
inquiring voices. c Yes, Drechsel, the former post- 
director/ Hereupon orders were given to the people 



176 



TITLES OF NOBILITY. 



standing about to be joyful ; the postilions were par- 
ticularly delighted, and blew heartily, c Nun danket 
alle Gott.' It was late ; the cow's horn of the watch- 
man joined in the chorus, and every street and alley 
grew noisy and turbulent. 

"This Drechsel had held the honourable post of 
Privy Letter -opener. It seems that every post-office 
received from the general Direction a list of the per- 
sons whose letters, sent or received, were to be en- 
closed to the postmaster-general ; by him they were 
committed to the Privy Letter-opener, who made ex- 
tracts from some, suppressed others altogether, and 
allowed the rest, like birds caught and let loose again, 
to fly to their destination. The same manipulation 
existed, I believe, in other countries, which explains 
the question, otherwise inexplicable, why it is that 
postmasters-general are so often converted into diplo- 
mates, and diplomates into postmasters-general." 

The scene of the following absurdities is laid in 
Bavaria, but might just as well be at home — or any- 
where else. A rage for trumpery distinctions is, un- 
happily, of no time or country. 

Almost every man who had risen to a post, civil or 
military, under Government, had created a title of 
nobility, not only for himself, but his children and 
descendants. In this, and other indirect ways, the 



TITLES OF NOBILITY. 



177 



numbers of tlie nobility had been greatly increased — 
a real evil, where they enjoy legal and substantial pri- 
vileges ; besides the usurpation of the rights of the 
hereditary nobles. 

To correct this abuse, a sort of herald's college was 
established, for examining and ascertaining the titles 
of the nobility. The attestation of this college was 
necessary. The price of an attestation will not appear 
to our readers ruinous, — for the lowest class of nobles, 
£1. 10s. ; for a baron, £5 ; a count, £10 ; a prince, 
£30. For this they had a pedigree, arms, etc. etc. 

"Nevertheless, the creation of this and a similar 
institution in Westphalia, Prussia, and Hanover 
(where the fees were, however, much higher), excited 
a terrible outcry among great and small ; — among the 
great, because they were angry at being questioned, 
and because the origin of their nobility was, according 
to them, too remote to be traced ; at all events, as old 
as that of the reigning house. The fact however 
was generally not so; especially as to the barons, who 
had therefore no alternative but either to give up 
their title, or to receive a new one by way of favour, 
and so to start afresh with a very recent diploma. The 
few barons (Freiherrn) of great antiquity, — as, for 
instance, those of Lippe and Schwarzenberg, — have 
taken their place among the nobility of the Empire. 

i 3 



178 



CLAIMS TO DESCENT. 



" A still greater lamentation resounded from among 
those who had no proof to show-, — even of the lowest 
class of nobility, — except such things as tailors' bills 
(generally unreceipted), which ran as follows : — c For 
mending his Hochfreiherrliche Gnaden's (High-baron- 
like Grace's) old clothes — so much;' etc. etc. The 
claims of above a hundred such families were en- 
tirely rejected. The whole amount of this immatri- 
culation of the already existing nobility might amount, 
during my time, to 30,000 gulden. 

" "We had often most curious claims laid before us, 
to which we could not refuse our pious belief without 
mortal offence. Thus, for example, the Esterhazys 
pretended to be descended directly from Attila, or, 
better still, from the patriarch Enoch; the Arcos, from 
the long extinct counts of Bogen ; the Spierings, from 
the dukes of Cleves ; the Ruffinis, from the Roman 
dictator, Publius Cornelius Rufinus ; the Widmers, 
from a Gothic king ; the Aretines, from the kings of 
Armenia. 

" The old Court ladies were ready to scratch my 
eyes out because I asked for their baptismal regis- 
ter. A countess of Taxis was heroic enough rather to 
give up all immatriculation than reveal this secret; 
others sent it to me through their confessors ; others 
required me to take a formal oath not to reveal it." 



BASES OF AN ARISTOCRACY. 



179 



The minister. Count Montgelas, a man of consi- 
derable talent and originality, had a great contempt 
for the small fry of nobility. He wanted to found 
an aristocracy like the English, based on large he- 
reditary landed possessions, and the law of primo- 
geniture ; and then a personal or life Ritteradel, or 
order of knights. He felt the inconvenience of a 
poor beggarly nobility, and the way in which its claims 
hamper the government in the distribution of offices. 
The project, or the desire, of creating a body on the 
model of the English aristocracy, has been frequently 
and widely entertained. That it should tempt re- 
formers is no wonder ; but the surprising thing is, 
that any one should imagine such a body can be ex- 
temporized. Centuries of territorial possession alone 
will not do, unless accompanied by centuries of the 
practice of public affairs, and of identification with 
public interests. 

From the specimens we have laid before our readers, 
it is sufficiently clear that our author is not much 
given to the weakness of over-admiration. Few indi- 
viduals or governments have much of his good word ; 
and he has so quick a sense of the characteristic vices, 
follies, or defects of each branch of the great German 
family, that it is as impossible to deny them a certain 
air of truth, as it is not to recognize H. B/s carica- 



180 



IMPERIAL LATIN, 



tures — in which, par parentliese, there is far less bit- 
terness than in Lang's portraits. Of all the states of 
Germany, Austria fares the best with him, as being 
"the freest from the Egyptian plague of pedantry, 
and where, what there is, is on a grand and imperial 
scale." The Austrians are indeed the most popular 
people of Germany, and no wonder : extreme good- 
nature and absence of pretension are the most con- 
venient of all qualities to others ; they conciliate both 
the sympathy and the self-love. Lang speaks with 
unwonted goodwill of the imperial family and the 
Austrian people; and, as the Bavarian constitution 
had given him a hearty disgust of what he calls play- 
ing with mere forms, he quotes with some satisfaction 
the Emperor Erancis's delightful speech on his coro- 
nation in Hungary: " Totus mundus stultizat, et vult 
habere novas constitutiones ; sed vos jam habetis 
unam constitutionem antiquam, ut non opus sit his 
novitatibus peregrinis." 

The Emperor's German, as is well known, was as 
remarkable as his Latin — it was Viennese. Lang 
tells a story which he seems to think greatly to the 
Emperor's credit. He had been much importuned 
to give some place to a man whom he especially 
disliked and disapproved, and had as constantly 
refused : at length, through neglect or hurry, he 



BOHEMIAN CHARACTER. 



181 



signed his appointment. When he had found out 
what he had done, he only said — " Curious ! he has 
got it, though, at last \" (Curjos ! jetzt ist er*s halt 
doch w or den !) 

"We find one really interesting and important re- 
mark about Vienna. In noticiDg the changes which 
had taken place in the lapse of time since his former 
visit to it, says, "The Vienna dialect had in great 
measure given way, in the higher classes, to the Silesio- 
Bohemian. The Bohemians and Moravians had 
raised themselves in every department by their talents 
and activity, and occupied the majority of the more 
important posts ; and I am firmly persuaded that 
this race will force itself into a prominent place in 
Austrian history/' If this struck him in 1820, what 
would he say now ? It is much the fashion among 
tourists to ascribe the rising importance of the Bo- 
hemians to the patriotic partialities of Count Kolowrat. 
We see however that they had begun to distinguish 
themselves before his influence commenced : nor do 
we believe that any such change is to be brought 
about by one man. It would probably be nearer the 
truth to say, that the Minister is himself one example 
of the general proposition. Reserved, industrious, 
and intelligent, the Bohemians are the workers of the 
Austrian empire, and must of course become the 



182 SLAVONISM. 

most indispensable members of the body. They num- 
ber among their wealthy and powerful nobles some 
most high-minded and enlightened men ; who show 
their patriotism, not in factious and furious opposition 
to the government, but in strenuous, persevering, and 
peaceful exertions for the improvement of the physi- 
cal and moral condition of the people. It is reserved 
for Bohemia to show whether a Slavonian people can 
attain to solid, consistent, and generally diffused civi- 
lization. The high and brilliant polish of Poland 
never reached the people; and it had little solid moral 
or intellectual culture to rest on. Still less can 
Russia, with her broad contrasts of splendour and filth, 
profusion and meanness, and her universal insensibi- 
lity to truth and honour, — be accepted as affording 
any sample or earnest of Slavonic civilization. Those 
who believe what is called the Slavonic movement 
in Bohemia to be prompted by, or favourable to, 
Russia, know nothing at all of the temper of the 
Slavonic subjects of Austria"*. 

* Whatever unfavourable impressions I may have of the higher 
classes in Russia, I owe entirely to the reports of Austrians and 
Prussians, — men of high station, unquestioned honour and veracity. 
They had an exhaustless fund of anecdotes of Russian mendacity, 
cheating, venality, — pilfering, even ; in short, every form and kind of 
improbity, which nothing but absolute faith in the narrator, and the 
concurring testimony of various witnesses, could have rendered it 
possible for me to believe. On the other hand, the few young Bus- 



CHARACTER OF LANG. 



183 



Lang^s memoirs close in the year 1824, We have 
given very little of his private history, except inci- 
dentally : the reason, we have alleged at the begin- 
ning of this article. His personal character does not 
attract our sympathy, nor our respect : except in as 
far as he seems to have been really impressed with an 
idea very uncommon at that time of day, and very 
remarkable in a man of his temper; namely, that 
governments and public functionaries are bound to 
act with some reference to the interests of the go- 
verned. He seems, too, to have had, for his age and 
country, unusually clear and just notions on econo- 
mical subjects, — such as the commercial restrictions 
which severed the various states of Germany; the ab- 
surd passport system ; the establishing of a maximum 
on articles of consumption; and all the evils conse- 
quent on the rage for over-governing ( Vielregieren) . 

sians who have come in my way, impressed me very favourably ; 
they were well-bred, well-informed, enlightened, and apparently 
eager to be more so. Perhaps they were exceptions : and if so, the 
more to be admired — and pitied. I particularly remember two ; — 
each sprung from one of the most conspicuous families of the Empire, 
— the one a representative of the Slavonic, the other of the Teu- 
tonic element of the population, — who were quite on a level with 
the most instructed and accomplished young Englishmen or 
Frenchmen. But it is certain that in Yienna and Berlin, the repu- 
tation of Russians generally, stood at a very low point. The Prussian 
ofncers, especially, who had lately returned from the camp of Kalisch, 
spoke with disgust and contempt of what they had witnessed. 



184 



CONDITION OF GERMANY. 



There is a great deal of wit in the book, of a pe- 
culiar kind, — not the highest, certainly ; and a vast 
store of anecdotes. Some of these are so extraor- 
dinary, as almost to stagger our belief; and all are 
related with a cynical delight in the meanness and 
deformities of mankind. The author made, as we 
have been told by persons who knew him, countless 
enemies by his bitter and unsparing tongue ; and he 
showed as little reserve and delicacy about himself 
as about others. But his historical and antiquarian 
learning were always acknowledged by the most com- 
petent judges. His leanings, if he had any (for 
his contempt was pretty impartial), were, we think, 
more towards the French than his own countrymen ; 
and, indeed, there is a mocking levity about him which 
savours far more of France than of Germany. The 
overbearing pretensions, and military pedantry of the 
Prussians ; the coarse habits of the Bavarians ; the 
corruption and inaptitude of the governing classes, 
and the servility and meanness of the governed, are 
all described with a sort of gusto, very different from 
the sorrowing indignation or the discriminating re- 
buke of a true patriot. But his facts have not been 
denied ; indeed, they may be taken as acknowledged 
even by those to whom they are most offensive, since 
the Bavarian Government has prohibited the publica- 



PROGRESS OF GERMANY. 



185 



tion of the third volume (which brings the history 
down to the present time), and has, by that act, 
avowed that it was not in a condition to confute the 
author's allegations. 

We must, however, again emphatically remind our 
readers, that this book relates to German men and 
things as they were, and not as they are. To those 
who know Germany, it is unnecessary to say this ; 
to those who see only her defects and failures, it 
may be consolatory to compare the state of things 
depicted by Bitter von Lang with what passes before 
our eyes. 

Great progress has been made, and the elements of 
far greater progress are afloat. Considerable breaches 
have been made in the ramparts that divided classes 
of men; and class hatreds — one of the most fruit- 
ful sources of political weakness — are less intense. 
Though many absurd restraints on the utterance of 
public opinion remain, yet secresy and impunity are 
not now to be counted on as formerly. 

As proofs of that important fact, such books as the 
one before us, odious as is the temper they evince, 
are of great public utility; and, though we cannot 
applaud them, we must admit that they are service- 
able to the cause of truth and justice. 



186 



GERMANY, FROM THE CONGRESS OE 
RASTADT TO THE BATTLE OF JENA. 

In the foregoing pages we attempted, first, to trace 
the progress of society and manners in Germany 
during the closing years of the last century. We 
drew from contemporary writers engaging pictures 
of the simple, unruffled lives, the tranquil plea- 

Memorabilien. Yon Kael Immeemann. 3 vols. Hamburgh, 
1840-1843. 

Fersonalien. Yon Feied. Jacobs. Leipzig, 1840. 

Memoiren des Freiherrn von S a. Berlin. 

Was ich erlebte. Yon Heinbich Steepens. Yols. Y. and YI. 

Frinnerungen aus dem dussern Ziehen. Yon Ebnst Moeitz 
Abndt. (3rd edition.) Leipzig, 1842. 

Adalbert von Chamisso ; Zeben und Brief e. Herausgegeben von 
J. E. Hitzig. 2 Bande. Berlin, 1839. 

Scenes from trie War of Ziberation in Germany. Translated from 
the German of Yarnhagen von Ense. By Sir Alexandee Deee 
GrOEDOisr, Bart. London, 1847. 

Vorlesungen iiber die Freiheitshriege. Yon Joh. GrUS. Deoysen. 
Kiel, 1847. 

Frinnerungen aus meinem Zeben. Yon W. L. Y. GtBAEEN HeK- 
kel von Donneesmaek, K.P. Greneral-Lieutenant. Zerbst, 1846. 
And others. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PERIOD. 



187 



sures, and the contented mediocrity of fortune, which 
characterized the age and the country. We then 
shewed some of the weaknesses and vices which de- 
formed and threatened the social edifice ; and we 
brought our readers to the verge of the abyss the 
depths of which we have now to sound. There are 
things which can never become obsolete or uninterest- 
ing; and if there be a spectacle in the world calculated 
for ever to awaken the curiosity, and engage the sym- 
pathies of mankind, it is that of the moral decline of 
a great nation, followed by its political overthrow ; 
and finally, of its resurrection, purified and strength- 
ened by adversity. 

Such is the spectacle which we would now fain pre- 
sent to our readers ; and we have been induced to 
enter on the task, less by any confidence in our own 
power to do it justice, than by the doubt whether the 
many affecting descriptions of these scenes, contained 
in the works of men acting or suffering in them, will 
ever meet the eye of the English public in any other 
way. From one of these works, the Autobiography of 
M„ Varnhagen von Ense, a very judicious and happy 
selection has been made. But most of them"* are 

* Since this was written, many valuable memoirs relating to the 
period before us have been published, and have attracted consider- 
able notice in this country. 



188 



AN INVADED COUNTRY. 



untranslated and nearly unknown in England. Per- 
haps therefore we shall be doing a not unaccept- 
able service to our readers, in bringing some of the 
more striking passages contained in them under their 
notice. 

The first act of this great drama is full of shame 
and grief; but it would, we think, be a misjudging 
friendship, or a miscalculating patriotism, that would 
conceal or gloss over any of its lamentable scenes. 
To rise out of a state of prostration, is the surest test 
of a vigorous constitution ; and a nation capable of 
struggling victoriously with degradation and despair, 
has no need to blush for the most inglorious of its 
days. 

If we formerly had to apologize for venturing be- 
yond the province of domestic and social life, to which 
we had originally intended to confine ourselves, and 
ascribed this departure from our plan to the evil days 
we had fallen upon, how much more need shall we 
have of the indulgence of our readers now ! " The 
further we advance in the great historical drama," we 
then said, " the more will domestic life fall into the 
background ; or rather, the more deeply will it be 
coloured by political events." 

"What indeed is domestic life, in a country ruled, 
insulted, trodden underfoot and despoiled by foreign 



THE WAR OF LIBERATION. 



189 



armies and foreign rulers? Those who have heard it de- 
scribed by sufferers and eye-witnesses ; who have seen 
how the bare recollection still stirs every fibre of their 
hearts; who have watched the blood rush to their 
cheeks as they talked of the wrongs and the humilia- 
tions they had endured ; of the alternations of hope and 
despair, energy and lassitude ; of the heroic acts per- 
formed^ and the heroic sacrifices made ; of the surrender 
of all to country, the love of which was become not 
only stronger than death, but stronger than the ties 
of blood ; those, and those alone, can understand how 
entirely, in times like these, all the objects, plans, 
pursuits, and affections of social and domestic life 
took their colour from political events. 

We were struck lately with the remark, or rather 
complaint, of a distinguished Genevese, that " already 
the history of the French Revolution had become an- 
cient history to his sons." Already all its great and 
terrible lessons lie too far behind the present gene- 
ration, to act vividly on their minds. This is, we be- 
lieve, doubly true, as regards English readers, of the 
changes which that Revolution brought upon Ger- 
many. We have therefore thought it necessary to 
string our extracts on an historical thread, which may 
make them intelligible and coherent to those the least 
familiar with the story of the War of Liberation. 



190 



THE SCHOOL OF CONQUEST. 



We have taken for our guide the narrative of Professor 
Droysen, which is brief and animated, and contains 
many just remarks and honourable sentiments. We 
regret that it is deformed by the spirit of exclusive and 
aggressive patriotism so much in fashion with a certain 
class of German writers, who cannot speak of any other 
country than their own, but in terms of distrust, con- 
tempt, or aversion. Germany was so long distinguished 
by a nobler and more discriminating spirit, that we see 
with infinite regret the rise of a vulgar nationality, 
which we have been accustomed to regard as proper 
to less instructed nations, or to the least instructed 
portions of our own. She has nothing to gain, either 
in internal happiness or external consideration, by this 
abdication of her office as a calm, humane, many-sided, 
and impartial judge. 

In recurring to scenes so afflicting to humanity, 
and so little honourable to the French people, we 
have not the least intention of re-awakening slum- 
bering resentments against them, or marking them 
out as peculiarly deserving of the condemnation of 
mankind. They were trained, as the Prussians had 
been, in the all-corrupting school of conquest : and 
if we must acknowledge, that the vices and enor- 
mities they learned in it were more glaring, we 
must also recollect that they were the result of 



THE SCHOOL OF CONQUEST. 



191 



more deadly provocation, were committed in more 
heated blood, and exhibited on a wider and loftier 
stage. If the study of the causes on which de- 
pends the character of an individual be deeply inter- 
esting, the investigation of those which go to form the 
character of a nation are far more so : and we believe 
it will be found that, in both cases, great, rapid, and 
brilliant success is alike fatal. In this dizzy career, 
every tutelary genius appointed to guard our way 
through life — conscience, humanity, moderation, pru- 
dence — one after another, take their flight; till at 
length the nation, or the man, drunk with triumphs, 
and abandoned to the madness of power, defies the 
opinions and outrages the feelings of mankind, wearies 
the patience of Heaven, and rushes on inevitable ruin. 
The two nations, which will appear as the chief actors 
in the tragedy before us, paid in turn the penalty of 
their "glory." The overthrow of Prussia is not 
more clearly traceable to the habits and sentiments 
engendered by the victorious career she had run, than 
are the reverses of France, and many of the moral 
maladies by which she is still afflicted, to the charac- 
ter she acquired and exhibited during the portentous 
period of her military triumphs. 

Such then, even to the winning party, are the re- 
sults of aggressive war. To the losing, who does not 



192 



WAR. 



know that they are wounds and death ; hunger and 
cold; ruined houses, burnt cities, and desolate fields; 
orphan children, and childless parents ? We need not 
insist on these grosser and more obvious effects of 
war. We would rather call the attention of our 
readers to the complete disturbance of domestic life ; 
the interruption of all useful and beneficent pursuits ; 
the destruction of social confidence; the entire dis- 
location of the plans and employments, the hopes and 
the fortunes, of every class of men, not directly em- 
ployed or interested in the pursuit of war. 

It has often been said, with the selfishness of secu- 
rity, that we, in our sea-girt isle, have no idea of what 
war is. But, the obligation which we are under is 
only so much the more imperative, to show what it is ; 
and for that purpose to look steadily at all the fearful 
details of the hideous whole, — comprehended in a word 
which glides so trippingly over many a thoughtless 
tongue. And as England's voice is most potent in 
that great council of nations where this supreme ques- 
tion must generally be decided, it is right that every 
human being within her realm should learn what an 
abyss of misery lies hidden under the romance and 
the splendour of war. We particularly recommend 
the study to those who can never share its dangers. 
They are often — shall we say, therefore ? — the great- 



ASCENDANCY OF FRANCE. 



193 



est admirers of its splendour and romance; and the 
least scrupulous as to the sentiments or the measures 
that render it inevitable. 

Before we proceed further, it is important to in- 
quire, what were the dispositions of the German 
people towards France at the commencement of the 
French Revolution? It might have been imagined 
that the wars of Louis XIV. would have left their 
minds full of bitter resentment and antipathy ; but 
this was not so. The unequalled prestige enjoyed by 
that monarch, and by his country, in his day, over- 
came every other feeling. France not only occupied 
the largest place in the eyes of Europe, but was the 
object of general imitation. In language, literature, 
manners, dress, in all the outward marks of civili- 
zation, France was the glass at which the other na- 
tions of Europe dressed themselves. Even England, 
spite of her old enmity, her insular position, and her 
vigorous nationality, did not escape the universal 
ascendancy ; while Germany was prostrate before it. 
In the Protestant North, if anywhere, it might have 
been thought, an independent nationality, with the 
glorious language of Luther as its exponent, might 
have established itself, and have opposed a dyke 
to the torrent of imitation. But here again Ger- 
many was unfortunate. The great King, who first 

K 



194 



ASCENDANCY OF FRANCE. 



taught the -world that boundless liberty of discus- 
sion could be combined with implicit obedience to 
authority ; — whose motto, " Reason, but obey/ ; conse- 
crates his memory to a higher and more lasting fame 
than all his victories, — did his country the enormous 
wrong of making her intellectually dependent on 
France. The Academy of Berlin, intended by Leib- 
nitz to be the fosterer of the German language, was 
forbidden to publish its Memoirs in any other lan- 
guage than French ; and, as might be expected, we 
soon find that body proposing as the subject for a 
prize the shameful question, "What are the causes 
of the universality of the French language?" Even 
this might be imagined ; — but how is it possible to 
understand, a king forbidding the men who were to 
do the work of his country in administration and in 
arms, to use the language of that country ? The pro- 
fessors and pupils of the civil and military schools 
were compelled to use French exclusively. Singular 
perversion of a great mind*! His brother, Prince 
Henry, affected to be hardly able to speak German. 

* "Frederic IT.," says General Mu fflin g, "had had a very unfa- 
vourable influence on my education. My father — an officer in the 
Seven Years' War — knew what was the first of all recommendations 
of a young officer to the favour of the King — perfect familiarity 
with the French language!'' — Fr. von Milffiing s Aus memem Zehen. 
Berlin, 1851, 



FRENCH REVOLUTION. 



195 



Such was tlie impatience of this Prince to spread the 
poison that was circulating in France, that he used 
to have Diderot's novels sent to Germany in ma- 
nuscript. French was the language of good society 
throughout Germany; no one, as we have seen, 
was welcome at the table of Kaunitz who did not 
speak it. Even the men of letters who hung about 
the small courts, like Zimmermami, addressed their 
fade and sentimental flattery to the women in stiff 
and cumbrous French. In science, letters, and art, 
Germany was the willing pupil and tributary of 
France*. 

Nor were the ideas which led to the Revolution 
unwelcome there. The very literature which had 
so universal a currency and influence in Germany, 
bore in. it the germs of that great convulsion; or 
rather, it might be more correct to say, it was the 
expression of the universal mental disquiet and re- 
volt which agitated and menaced Europe, and of 

* " ""Marniontel informs us, with great self-satisfaction, of the im- 
portance which the G-ernian princes attached to French rhetoric and 
superficial elegance, of which examples were then rare in then own 
country. And this, at a time when KLopstock was obliged to find a 
home in Denmark : when Schiller with difficulty earned a miserable 
subsistence : when Toss was obliged to remain as schoolmaster in a 
Bremen Tillage, and Lessing was persecuted on account of his philo- 
sophical, historical, and critical doubts.'* — ScJilosser's History of the 
Eighteenth Century, vol. ii. 

K 2 



196 GERMAN VIEWS OF THE REVOLUTION. 

which the French Revolution was the first violent 
crisis"^. 

"The French Revolution/' says Droysen, "what- 
ever were its deformities and excesses, gave utter- 
ance and effect to ideas for which the traditionary 
power of the old States was no match. Where 
were now the haughty threats of the princes and 
their courts ? Where the arrogant pedantry of the 
old art of war, or the high-sounding commonplaces 
of the far-famed wisdom of cabinets ? Old Europe 
had lost all consistency. 

"Nor was this all. The e terror' was over. Though 
the internal affairs of France were still without form 
or order, it was evident that a new basis of civil and 
political life had been secured, in harmony with ideas 
universally diffused and wants universally felt, in the 
eighteenth century. The principles of religious tole- 
ration, freedom of thought and conscience, and equa- 
lity before the law, which have been accepted by all 
enlightened men, were now reduced from theory to 

# "The whole spirit of the reign of terror was contained in the 
works of a man (Diderot) who died in 1783 ; and the conspirators 
who raved in the wine- shops of Paris in later years, did nothing but 
appeal to one of those people in whose writings, in prose and verse, 
the whole of the world of genius, luxury, and fashion delighted from 
the year 1770 to 1780." — Schlosser's History of the Eighteenth Cen- 
twry^ vol. ii. 



EFFECT OF THE REVOLUTION IN GERMANY. 197 

practice. The enthusiasm of youth, the hopes of phi- 
lanthropists, and the instincts of the people, were in 
favour of the nation which now began to extricate it- 
self out of the chaos of the Revolution"*." 

We have quoted Steffens'sf animated description 
of the excitement kindled throughout Europe by the 
American War. Let us now see what he says of 
that produced by the French Revolution. "The 
movement excited by the French Revolution in every 
country in Europe had, indeed, in all the same origin 
— the vague and dim wishes of the educated middle 
class ; but in every one it bore a distinct character. 
In no way perhaps could the peculiarities of each 
people be more clearly and forcibly exhibited, than by 

* The following passage from the recently published life of Fried- 
rich Perthes, the eminent bookseller of Hamburg, is a specimen of 
the bright dreams of the youth of Germany in 1792. He was 
then twenty years old, and apprentice to a bookseller in Leipzig. " I 
think that mankind is now falling into a confusion, out of which it 
will then make a great and brilliant step towards perfection." But 
how far was his idea of freedom from the conceptions of those who 
called themselves its champions in France ! " According to my view, 
mastery over oneself is the only true individual freedom, and were 
all men free in this sense, civil freedom must soon follow. " A year 
later he writes : " I cannot look at the political world without pain : 
in France a raging senseless people, and at home contract-breaking 
tyrants. I always thought that if the individual man fell, the hu- 
man race would gradually advance ; but even that seems to be a 
dream." — Perthes Leben. Hamburg und Grotha, 1853. 

t See above, p. 50. 



198 



WANT OF POLITICAL LIFE. 



following out these expressions of the popular feel- 
ing; for while the abstract principles under discussion 
were everywhere the same, the various ways in which 
they presented themselves to men's minds mainly de- 
pended on the peculiar circumstances of each. 

" No country in Europe was wholly free from the 
elements of the general fermentation, for they were 
the product of the state of Europe generally; and al- 
though it must be admitted that all these scattered 
elements had for centuries found a dangerous focus 
in France, yet no clear-sighted inquirer into history 
will ever seek for the germ of the Revolution either 
in any particular historical fact, or in any one aggre- 
gate of facts." 

The peculiar form which the general fermentation 
assumed in Germany was, in accordance with the ge- 
nius of the country, rather speculative than active. 
The causes which led to political convulsions in France, 
and to political agitations in England, convulsed or 
agitated the moral life of Germany. Modes of think- 
ing and feeling were changed, attachments loosened, 
convictions shaken or destroyed. Everything was 
called in question. 

Unfortunately, too, there was no public career for 
young men of the higher ranks who had any noble 
aspirations. When we see, as we shall shortly do, 



WANT OF POLITICAL LIFE. 



199 



the vast abundance of talent, valour, statesmanship, 
and patriotism that started into light, in the years of 
Prussia's utmost need ; and how, " in 1808, men were 
found specially fitted each for the work he had to 
do, — Humboldt, Stein, Schon, Niebuhr, Scharnhorst, 
Gneisenau, Altenstein, and many others we are 
tempted to inquire, where were all these men in 
the moment of Prussia's peril ? Why did they not 
prevent the ruin from which they so nobly and so 
ably raised her up? For an answer to this inquiry 
we must look to the condition of Prussia before that 
dreadful and salutary overthrow. The biographer of 
Wilhelm von Humboldt, in accounting for the purely 
literary and scientific career chosen by that great 
statesman at his entrance into life, draws the follow- 
ing picture of the condition of Prussia at the time 
Frederic William III. ascended the throne (1797). 

u Governments and people were equally torpid ; of 
national or political feeling, scarcely a trace remain- 
ing. A few gleams of a purely intellectual character 
issued from two or three small principalities. It was 
only in this better being of the German people that 
men like Wilhelm von Humboldt could take any part. 
For what could be expected from a divided nation, 
whose powerless fragments had at their head two 
monarchies mortally hating each other, but defeat 



200 



REVOLUTIONARY ENTHUSIASM. 



and disgrace ? What could be desired but a complete 
regeneration, internal and external?" 

It is in vain that Heaven bestows on a country men 
qualified for the high and arduous duties of govern- 
ing. If such men find that there is no entrance to a 
political life but through the sacrifice of dignity and 
principle, — through base compliances with the hu- 
mours of kings or the prejudices of mobs, — they will 
turn from it in disgust, and take refuge in science 
and letters, or in the honourable independence of 
private life. 

The want of a legitimate outlet for political ardour, 
or employment for political activity, in Germany, 
and the morbid and unmanly tone of mind which 
this want was calculated to produce, rendered the 
Germans peculiarly prone to unreasoning enthusi- 
asm and to political delusions. Accordingly we find 
the excitement with which the " grosses Drama" was 
viewed, as violent, as the notions of its causes and 
consequences were vague and fantastic. This we 
learn from many contemporary writers, among others 
from Campe"*, the tutor of Wilhelm von Hum- 

* Author of the " New Kobinson Crusoe," and other books for 
children. 

One of the best writers in the Grerman language, Greorge Forster, 
the companion of Captain Cook, sacrificed fortune, reputation, coun- 
try, and lastly life, to this frantic excitement. 



THE MARSEILLAISE. 



201 



boldt. Neither the tutor nor his illustrious pupil 
escaped the infection. They went to Paris in 1789 
in order "to witness the funeral fire of French de- 
spotism" (um dem Leichenfeuer des franzosischen 
Despotismus beizuwohnen) . As the Germans had re- 
nounced their nationality to become the servile imi- 
tators of the court of Louis XIV., of the literature, 
manners, and tastes of France, so now we find our 
travellers sticking national cockades in their hats, and 
claiming brotherhood with the whole French nation. 
"We had ceased," says Campe, "to be a Branden- 
burger and a Braunschweiger." It was not very long 
before their adopted brothers took them at their word. 
Then, and not till then, did it appear that there were 
still Brandenburgers and Brunswickers left. 

Hamburg, proud of its republican character, and 
of the great writers and thinkers it had sheltered, 
loudly professed its sympathy with the great new-born 
Republic. It was the seat of great mental activity, 
and the resort of men of every shade of opinion. 
It appears that the Marseillaise was then in favour 
with those opulent and honourable citizens of Ham- 
burg, of whom the family of Sieveking may be taken 
as the type. They had opportunities enough after- 
wards for estimating the practical value of the sen- 
timents it inspired. Goethe, with his usual good 

k 3 



202 GERMAN VIEWS OF THE REVOLUTION. 

sense and perspicacity, saw to what all this de- 
mocratical ardour was tending, and appreciated the 
suicidal folly of those who, around their "well-fur- 
nished tables," revelled in the dilettantism of revo- 
lution. In a letter, written in 1793, he says, "Mr. 
Sieveking may be a rich man and a clever man, 
but he has not got far enough to perceive that the 
song, ' Allons, enfans' etc., is not suited to well-to-do 
people in any language ; but was written and composed 
for the comfort and encouragement of poor devils. 
That song, at a well-furnished table, seems to me like 
' Pain bis, et liberte,' as the motto of a wealthy man ; 
or ' Wenig, aber mil Recht' (Little but justly), as that 
of an c arch- Jew/ " 

" The great events in France," says the venerable 
Jacobs of Gotha, "had from the first seized upon 
all minds. Most men rejoiced in the revolution 
which had taken place in that ill-governed country; 
opinions hitherto confined to books, like an occult 
science, and now proclaimed from the tribune, found 
general sympathy; and the number of those in fa- 
vour of the old absolutism was very small. It was 
not till later that people of sense and humanity 
were gradually alienated from the cause ; the fate of 
men of science and letters made, naturally enough, 
a profound impression in Germany. 



CAUSES OF HOSTILITY TO FRANCE. 203 



" In Prussia even the King was thought to re- 
gard with favour a revolution which had overthrown 
aristocratical privileges. 'You have only the nobles 
against you/ said a Prussian minister to the French 
ambassador* ; ' the King and the people are openly 
for France. The revolution which you have made 
from below upwards, will be slowly accomplished in 
Prussia from above downwards; the King is a de- 
mocrat, after his fashion: he is incessantly endea- 
vouring to curtail the privileges of the nobles, but 
by slow means. In a few years feudal rights will 
cease to exist in Prussia/ " 

It appears then that the feelings of hostility and 
fear with which the French have been, and indeed still 
are, though in a mitigated degree, regarded through- 
out Germany, were not the result of the wars of 
Louis XIV., nor even of the violences of the French 
Revolution. They are to be attributed entirely to 
Napoleon's domination. They arose out of the un- 
favourable view of the French character which a 
subjugated people are certain to receive from con- 
quering armies ; and still more from the herd of over- 
bearing and unprincipled adventurers whom those 
armies plant among them. The fierce resentment 
which burst forth in 1812-13, was the result of 

* Otto's Report, August, 1799. 



204 DISMEMBERMENT OF THE EMPIRE. 



recent injury, and not of any traditional or senti- 
mental antipathy. 

We need summon no more witnesses to prove that 
the state of the public mind in Germany was more 
formidable to its rulers than to its enemies. It re- 
mains to inquire what was the political condition of 
the country, and in what manner her princes pre- 
pared to resist or counteract the progress of opi- 
nions so menacing to their power. 

Our readers will recollect the cynical description 
of the proceedings of the Congress of Rastadt con- 
tained in Lang's Memoirs. The baseness and degra- 
dation, the treachery and dishonesty, which had been 
reduced to a sort of system at that assembly, were 
now put into infamous practice. The Emperor had 
signed the peace of Luneville without consulting the 
members of the Empire; and, strange to say, had 
been rewarded with their thanks. By this treaty, the 
left bank of the Rhine was ceded to France, and com- 
pensation, according to the principles laid down at 
Rastadt, was to be granted to the lesser princes thus 
dispossessed of their hereditary domains. The so- 
vereigns saw the tempting spoil within reach, and 
thought only by whose aid they could grasp it. They 
turned with shameless solicitations to Paris, — each 
against his neighbour. 



DISMEMBERMENT OF THE EMPIRE. 205 

In the spring of 1801 Prussia took possession of 
Hanover. In the same year, Maximilian, Elector 
of Cologne, died, and the chapters of Cologne and 
Minister were admonished "not to proceed to elect 
a successor, in the present state of things." It was 
evident that Prussia and France were in an under- 
standing, and that not only the lesser domains of the 
Church, but even the spiritual Electorates, were threat- 
ened with secularization. The Emperor, on his side, 
urged on the election : protesting against " so dan- 
gerous and unconstitutional an innovation ; " words 
which were struck out by the Prussian censor. A 
deputation of the Empire was appointed to settle the 
points in dispute ; but while this remained hopelessly 
inert, the dismemberment of Germany was carried 
on with the greatest activity at Paris. "At Paris," 
says Herr von Gagern, " in the garret of a certain 
Matthieu, from Strasburg, a tool of Talleyrand's, 
were our provinces cut up and parcelled out." 

We have not room for details of the scandalous 
bargains or the acts of violent injustice by which 
whole populations of faithful and loyal subjects were 
transferred, like herds of cattle, to new masters. We 
must hasten to show how soon these crimes met with 
their appropriate reward. 

In 1802, France and Ilussia offered their media- 



206 D 1 S M EMBER M INT OP THE EMPIRE, 

tion to restore the peace of the Empire : — " cum 
videmus tiirbulenturja statu m huius regionis/' was 
the curious preamble of the Latin translation of the 
Czar's proposal. 

On :ne 25th of February. 1803. the resolution of 
the deputation of the Empire was presented to the 
Diet : accepted on the .2 -1th March: and ratified by 
the Emperor on the 27th April. 

"'And thus was concluded/" says Droysen. "the 
most unjust and the most disastrous work recorded 
in German history. 

••'The Empire lost about 1200 square miles of ter- 
rit :ry. c Dntaining four millions of souls. The so-called 
indeninities awarded to the princes, consisted of the 
plunder of the church property within their newly 
acquired dominions, of the free cities, and even of the 
Hanse Towns, which were handed over to the arbi- 
trary rule of their new masters. And as these new 
acquisitions and combinations were founded neither 
in right, nor in the constitution of the country, nor 
in the wishes or convictions of the people, but in the 
favour of the two powers who guaranteed them, the 
prostration and confusion of Germany was complete. 

"2s or were constitutional forms more respected 
than territorial divisions. The powerful and impor- 
tant body of Imperial Cities was reduced to six ; even 



DISMEMBER ME XT OF THE EMPIRE. 



207 



Ratisbon and "Wetzlar, hallowed by so many glo- 
rious recollections, were swallowed up. The Electoral 
College too was totally altered ; in short, the politi- 
cal dismemberment of the Empire wa,s accomplished, 
and the semblance of union among its members only 
seiwed to facilitate the further enfeeblement and ruin 
of the several states. Germany, like France, had thus 
her revolution : but in the latter it was effected by 
the people ; in the former by the princes. Eights 
and privileges, property and tradition, were equally 
trampled underfoot. In Germany, as in France, the 
ancient aristocracy of the land was sacrificed ; but 
without the smallest advantage to the people, and 
wholly without their co-operation. 

" It may be imagined that Napoleon did not let 
slip such an opportunity as was thus afforded him for 
interfering in the affairs of Germany : but it is diffi- 
cult to believe that Prussia recommended the Knights 
of the Empire (Reichsr iff ers chaff) to accept his me- 
diation. But the complaints and lamentations of 
that body, the cries of the disfranchised Imperial 
Cities, and of the suppressed monasteries, the strug- 
gles of the lesser Princes and Counts against the 
rapacity of the greater, were now drowned by the 
noise of war. To complete the miserable picture 
of the times, — the secularized churches and convents 



208 



CONDUCT OF HULERS. 



were plundered and sold to Jews; their altarpieces, 
and reliquaries, and painted windows, transferred to 
the collections of c distinguished amateurs/ and their 
ancient archives and manuscripts sold for waste 
paper." 

The dissolution of that old feudal corporation 
called 'the Empire/ was, perhaps, not only inevit- 
able, but desirable ; since it had survived all the con- 
ditions of its existence. But the change was accom- 
plished in a manner equally disgraceful to the ho- 
nour, and destructive of the energies, of the nation. 
Though existing rights were wholly disregarded, no 
attempt was made to reform old abuses, or to intro- 
duce new and improved institutions; dynastic inte- 
rests were the only ones consulted. 

The sovereigns of Germany had indeed cut away 
the only ground on which any consistent defence 
of legitimacy could be made, from under their feet. 
They had adopted the principles, and shared the spoil 
of the French Revolution. They had recognized no 
right but the right of the strongest ; and it now re- 
mained to be seen in whose hands that would ulti- 
mately be vested. No attempt even was made to save 
the appearance of honesty, of fidelity to allies, or of 
disinterestedness ; the more powerful hurried to share 
the spoils with that very revolution, resistance to which 



GENERAL DISUNION. 



209 



had been made a cover for every act of lawless oppres- 
sion ; the weaker became beggars for the favour of the 
hated Republic, and bought its insolent agents with 
monstrous sums: the revolution pursued its triumph- 
ant career, and used terrible reprisals, treading under 
foot the legitimate sovereigns who had conspired for 
its destruction. With the rapacity which grows rank 
on the soil of unjust gain, all were striving for more. 
Austria had not abandoned her designs on Bavaria ; 
Prussia longed to round her territory with Hanover; 
the small princes were greedy to swallow up the still 
smaller, as they had already done the Free Cities and 
the dominions of the Church. And in the midst of 
all this, they claimed not only the allegiance but the 
attachment of subjects to whom they were strangers, 
and whom they had forcibly wrested from their legiti- 
mate masters. Yet spite of these innumerable wrongs, 
provocations, and discouragements, the German people 
gave repeated proofs that their ancient courage and 
patriotism was not wholly extinct. As early as 1799 
the subjects of the Elector of Mainz arose as Land- 
sturm "for the honour and encouragement of the 
ancient German spirit," as the imperial decree has it. 
Teutsche Waffenbruderungen, — German brotherhoods 
in arms, — were extensively formed ; the foresters of 
the Spessart, Odenwald, and Schwarzwald flew to 



210 



STATE OF AUSTRIA. 



arms. The people were ready, — it was their princes 
who were wanting. 

So great was the want of all union and sympathy 
between the several States, that when, in 1803, Bo- 
naparte seized upon Hanover, Germany looked on in 
silence. No attempt was made by the neighbouring 
States (who might have beheld in this the fate re- 
served for themselves), to succour the brave Hanove- 
rians ; there followed nothing but words from insulted 
Prussia. In 1804, misunderstandings arose between 
France and Austria ; yet, even then, no complaints 
of this act of violence were heard from the latter : 
on the contrary, a general satisfaction prevailed, that 
the ambition of Prussia, whose designs on Hanover 
were well known, had received a check. 

Meanwhile, a tendency to combination among the 
lesser powers of Germany (Kleindeiitschland) , and a 
disposition to put itself under the Protectorate of 
France, was already perceptible. Napoleon had al- 
ready contracted some formidable alliances in Ger- 
many ; and the Emperor's camp at Mainz, in 1804, 
had shown the world to what quarter the princes of 
Southern Germany would henceforth look for support. 

It had been confidently expected that the cabinet 
of Vienna would unite with England and Russia. 
But the state of that cabinet, as described by those 



CHARACTER OF PRUSSIA. 



211 



most deeply versed in its secrets, was such that no 
reliance whatever could be placed on it. War, con- 
quest, and the exclusively military spirit engendered 
by them,— a spirit compounded of blind mechanical 
routine, and a sort of deification of brute force, — 
were the chief causes of the degradation of Prussia. 
The causes of the corruption of Austria were more 
remote and complicated. Among them however we 
may venture to assign the reaction, following on the 
humane, but rash and premature, attempts of the 
Emperor J oseph to force upon a backward people re- 
forms which they were wholly unable to appreciate. 
The tragical history of that illustrious martyr to a 
passionate, but most autocratic philanthropy, and an 
over-estimate of the power of men to understand their 
own interests, is pregnant with instruction for those 
who think that good government can co-exist with 
popular ignorance and stupidity. The violent pre- 
judice thus excited against everything like improve- 
ment, threw the power into the hands of its most in- 
veterate enemies. The result was not difficult to fore- 
see. It was one among the many " felicities" which 
marked the early career of Napoleon. He trusted, 
not without ample reason, to the torpor, inefficiency, 
and corruption of the Austrian ministry. 

Prussia had risen out of the electoral ranks too 



212 



AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA. 



recently to be forgiven by her former equals • nor bad 
she taken tbe least pains to conciliate those she had 
outstripped. The general unpopularity of Prussia 
tended more than might be imagined to throw (C Klein- 
deutschland " into the arms of France. 

We cannot follow out the deplorable spectacle pre- 
sented by Austria and Prussia ; the attempts of Rus- 
sia^ Eugland, and France respectively, to play off the 
jealousy or the cupidity of those two powers against 
each other, and the disgraceful success with those 
attempts were crowned. Mr. Pitt, who had no con- 
fidence in the honour of Prussia, saw the necessity of 
tempting her with some bribe, the acceptance of which 
would irrevocably compromise her with France ; and 
accordingly one of the articles of the treaty signed 
at St. Petersburg in 1805, contained a promise of the 
Rhine provinces. 

We need only refer our readers to several impor- 
tant works throwing light on that dark period of 
Austrian politics: — the 'Lebensbilder aus dem Be- 
freiungskrieg/ the c Correspondence of Gentz"*/ and 
others, which have attracted notice in this country. 
" So abandoned a Ministry/' says the latter, in a 

* The acciiraey of G-entz's statements, rendered questionable by 
his profligate character, has lately received confirmation from a 
singularly well- informed and trustworthy witness of events, General 
von Muffling. 



AUSTRIA AND BAVARIA. 



213 



letter dated 12th. of August, 1805, "the sun never 
shone upon; every feeling of duty or of shame is 
extinguished in their brutish minds ; till they are 
rooted out, no good can happen." 

At length Russia and Austria declared war upon 
France. But it was still doubtful to which, side 
Prussia, Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, and Baden would in- 
cline. While the dispositions of these powers, whom 
it was so important to conciliate, were yet in sus- 
pense, the Austrian general, Prince Schwarzenberg, 
entered Munich, and peremptorily demanded that 
the Bavarian troops should immediately join those 
under his command ; offering in return the protec- 
tion and guarantee of Austria ; — Austria, which for 
centuries had never for an instant renounced its de- 
signs on Bavaria ! The unfortunate Elector, unable 
either to trust these invaders or to resist them, wrote 
with his own hand, to " entreat on his knees" (knie- 
fdllig) to be allowed to maintain his neutrality, for 
that his son was travelling in France. "A father 
overwhelmed with terror and despair, implores mercy 
for his son I" He hastened however to Wiirzburg, to 
call out his Franconian troops : and on the same day 
the Austrian army crossed the Inn, " to take up the 
fine position of Ulm levying contributions on their 
way, and paying Bavarian peasants with Austrian 



214 



GENERAL DISUNION. 



paper money, which in Austria itself was not worth 
thirty per cent. 

It cannot be supposed that the keen eye of Napo- 
leon overlooked the advantages which the conduct 
of German to German thus threw into his hands. 
" The invasion of Bavaria/' said his ambassador, 
" sufficiently demonstrates what are the designs of 
Austria." And Napoleon declared, "that he would 
defend the independence and security of Germany 
against Austria" To Wtirtemberg and Baden, 
Austria merely announced her regret that she could 
afford them no protection ; they must decide for 
themselves what to do in this extremity. And in- 
deed so imminent was her own danger, that she 
might be forgiven for treating the Duke of Wiir- 
temberg' s application for protection as insincere or 
ironical. Ney was before Stuttgart, and demanded 
contributions. The Elector replied, that he could 
not comply with the terms proposed. "But your 
country can/' replied Napoleon, " and / will protect 
you against your Estates" 

" Extortion, robbery, and oppression," says Schlos- 
ser, "knew no limits. Notwithstanding this, Baden 
and Wiirtemberg despatched ambassadors to Paris and 
negotiated a peace. The whole of Germany was laid 
under contribution ; millions were extorted from the 



CONDUCT OF PRUSSIA. 



215 



people, and still the princes, barons, and cities emu- 
lated each other in their humble and crouching ser- 
vility to the French. The whole circle of Franconia 
voluntarily submitted and paid six millions of florins, 
others four, others two, and so forth. Cowardly ne- 
gotiators prevailed upon the German courts to de- 
liver much more money, provisions, horses, and mu- 
nitions of war of all kinds, to the enemy's General in 
three months, than had been furnished for the use of 
the country during the whole course of the war." 

It now became evident that nothing could save 
Germany but the strictest union and most energetic 
co-operation of the two great powers, — Austria and 
Prussia, — the former of which was already struggling 
for existence. " The King of Prussia," says Gentz, 
" is now umpire of the life and death of Europe. If 
he wavers, all is lost." 

Yet Prussia, tempted by the bait held out by 
Napoleon, (the possession of Hanover,) continued to 
waver, till the Russian ambassador announced that 
a Russian army was on the frontier, and the Emperor 
Alexander requested an interview with the King. 

It must however be admitted that subsequent 
events justified the King's reluctance to declare war 
on France. He seems to have formed but too exact 
an estimate of the value of the reckless enthusiasm 



216 



CONDUCT OF PRUSSIA. 



and the martial boastings by which he was sur- 
rounded. Far from sharing in the general intoxica- 
tion, it filled him with alarm and distrust. What 
nothing can justify is, the willingness to accept the 
bribes offered by France, and the stupid and blind 
indifference to the fate of Austria manifested by 
Prussia. 

" It would be regarded as incredible/' says Schlos- 
ser, " were not the printed documents now before us, 
that the King of Prussia and Haugwitz should avail 
themselves of the very moment in which the Emperor 
and his noble brother were reduced to the greatest 
straits in their attempts to defend the integrity and 
honour of the empire, to enrich the King and his 
brother-in-law at the cost of the other states of Ger- 
many." 

In order to force the King to a decision, the Arch- 
duke Anthony and the Emperor Alexander hastened 
to Berlin, where he was already assailed with the 
clamours of the party eager for war with France, at 
the head of which were two persons, endowed with 
every quality that could fit them to be popular idols ; 
— the Queen, and Prince Louis Ferdinand. At 
length he gave way. On the 3rd of November, ac- 
companied by the Queen, he met the Emperor Alex- 
ander at the tomb of Frederic the Great, where the 



AUSTERLITZ. 



217 



two monarchs swore eternal friendship. A demon- 
stration, in the sentimental and theatrical tone of 
which we recognize the vestiges of the reign of Em- 
pfindsamkeit (of which we have shortly to speak). 
The following day the King said to his minister, " I 
have signed, my dear Count, but my mind is in the 
utmost disquiet : I tremble for the consequences." 

It was too late to save Austria. The 30th of Oc- 
tober witnessed Mack's capitulation at Ulm. On 
the 2nd of December, 1805, the battle of Austerlitz 
was fought : and with that disastrous battle, Francis 
gave up all for lost. The Emperor of Germany re- 
solved to go m person to the enemy's head-quarters, 
to sue for peace. He went, accompanied by one aide- 
de-camp. His air, — never remarkable for dignity or 
grace, — was now such as to inspire pity. In this 
abject state the head of the Holy Horn an Empire was 
received by Napoleon, surrounded by all his generals, 
and invested with all the pomp of supreme power. 
The conqueror however was gracious ; and not only 
forgave him, but promised him peace " on reasonable 
terms." The first of these was, the immediate re- 
moval of the Russian troops from Austria. It is af- 
firmed by an eye-witness of the scene, that the Em- 
peror, on his return from this humiliating conference, 
expressed his satisfaction at being relieved from one 

L 



218 



HAUGWITZ. 



fear ; namely, that Bonaparte should ask the hand of 
the Archduchess Maria Louisa for Eugene, Viceroy 
of Italy. " No," exclaimed lie ; " sooner should he 
have stripped me of everything ; — I would rather 
have become a private gentleman !" 

Throughout the whole of this time, Prussia had 
been vacillating. Had she been able to throw into 
the scale the moral weight of disinterestedness and 
justice, she might perhaps, even then, have imposed 
peace on Europe ; but her conduct, especially with 
regard to Hanover, had deprived her of this prepon- 
derance. Her anxiety for neutrality was ascribed 
to weakness ; and her efforts to preserve peace were 
turned against her by both parties. 

Her prime-minister, Haugwitz, was despatched to 
congratulate Napoleon on his victory over Austria ; 
and the reception he met with was as insulting as his 
errand was despicable. " You want to be the ally of 
all the world ! " said the haughty conqueror, — adding 
that he would forgive what was past on one condition; 
Prussia must immediately form an indissoluble union 
with France, and, as a pledge of her sincerity, occupy 
Hanover. On the 15th December, Haugwitz accord- 
ingly signed a treaty, containing the following clause : 
— " Prussia takes Hanover ; giving Ansbach to Bava- 
ria, Cleves and Neufchatel to France." On returning 



PEACE OF PRESBURG. 



219 



to Berlin from this sorry mission, the minister was in- 
sulted in the King's antechamber, and his house nearly 
pulled down by the exasperated populace ; the Queen 
and the whole court, with the exception of the King, 
showed so marked an aversion to him, that he actually 
entreated the King not to ratify the treaty, and to al- 
low him to retire from his service. But what availed 
all this ? The cabinet, after long deliberation, decided 
"to occupy Hanover for the present!" Every step 
taken plunged the country into deeper embarrass- 
ment; friends were alienated, and foes embittered. 

On the 26th December, the Emperor Francis con- 
cluded the peace of Presburg, bought with enormous 
sacrifices. Immediately after the fall of Ulm, the 
Elector Arch-chancellor had issued an address, ap- 
pealing to the patriotism of all good Germans "to 
endeavour to maintain the unity of the Empire, and 
obedience to its ancient laws." But already, as we 
have seen, Baden, Wiirtemberg, and Bavaria, had 
allied themselves with Napoleon ; the two latter had 
received from him the title of King, the former that 
of Grand Duke, with the condition of " absolute so- 
vereignty, the same as that of Austria and Prussia," 
attached to the new crowns. And all this had been 
done without any reference to the Diet of the Empire. 
The Empire was indeed defunct. 

l 2 



220 



ABDICATION OF THE EMPEROR. 



Then followed the intermarriages of the sovereign 
houses with the Corsican family, in which Bavaria led 
the way. The princes of Germany became the cour- 
tiers of the Tuilleries ; where the hard hands of sol- 
diers of fortune were never tired of grasping the 
bribes, which, wrung from the wretched people of Ger- 
many, were to be spent in riveting their chains. On 
the 12th July, 1806, sixteen German princes signed 
the Act of the Confederation of the Rhine, which 
Napoleon ratified on the 19th. A few days afterwards, 
the Emperor Francis abdicated the imperial throne 
of Germany. Once more — &nd no more — did "the 
elected Roman Emperor, in all times the Augmentor 
of the Empire" (Mehrer des Reichs), speak to Ger- 
many. He said, " We hold it due to our principles 
and our honour to renounce a throne which could 
have value in our eyes only so long as we were able 
to respond to the confidence reposed in us by the 
Electors, Princes, and Estates, and to fulfil our obli- 
gations towards them," etc. etc. 

The sixteen princes above mentioned now formed 
a league of independent sovereigns. Frankfurt was 
to be the seat of the Confederation and its discussions. 
The fundamental statutes, or constitution, of this 
body never appeared ; but Napoleon became its pro- 
tector, " solely from pacific motives," etc. etc. ; and 



CONFEDERATION OF THE RHINE. 221 

a treaty of alliance was concluded between the con- 
federate princes and " the French Empire." They 
were rewarded with additional territory, and with 
other marks of favour. The dominions of sixty-seven 
princes and counts, immediate feudatories of the Em- 
pire, the lands of the two great religious Orders, the 
cities of Frankfurt and Nlirnberg, were partitioned 
out among the sixteen. The other German sovereigns 
were told that they were free to join the Confedera- 
tion. 

Having thus secured his tools, Napoleon took care 
that they should be efficient ones; and that they 
should never be able to allege want of power to extort 
from their subjects whatever it might suit him to 
demand. He declared that he did not acknowledge 
the Constitution of the Empire; but acknowledged 
the " souverainete entiere et absolue" of each prince*. 
The Emperor Francis had already absolved all the 
estates of the Empire, the members of the imperial 
Chamber (Reichskammergericht) , and the other ser- 
vants of the Empire, from their oath and allegiance : 
so that Germany was now broken up into as many 

* "Les affaires de rAUemagne," said Napoleon in the autumn of 
1807, " sont plus compliquees que je ne pensais. . . . J'ai promis 
aux Princes Allemands une souverainete complete, et je veux leur 
tenir parole." — Erinnerungen aus den Kriegszeiten. Von Fr. von 
Miiller. 



222 



ABJECT STATE 0E GERMANY. 



separate States as remained unincorporated in the 
Confederation of the Rhine. 

The French revolution had been hailed by the 
German people, at its commencement, as we have 
seen, with hope and joy; but it quickly appeared 
with how little reason ; it soon became evident that 
the Confederation of the Rhine had no other object 
or tendency than to efface the last vestiges of popular 
rights, and to substitute the despotism of a soldier of 
fortune and a stranger for the worn-out but splendid 
traditions of the Empire. 

Such was the end — such were the unhonoured obse- 
quies of the most ancient and august Empire of the 
German Nation ; once the pride of Christendom, and 
the shield of a brave and loyal people ! So long as 
the name even of a supreme head of the Empire 
remained, the people, however divided by dynastic 
interests, had a point of political unity, and a claim 
on the protection of his Imperial Majesty, the Chief 
of the Empire. " Now were felt," says Arndt, " the 
sins of the last five or ten years. The corruption, the 
ruin, was complete and overwhelming. The princes 
withdrew from the struggle for the common cause of 
Germany. Cowardly and rapacious, they saw not what 
they lost. The people were dishonoured and insulted ; 
the ancient fortresses pulled down; Germany lay 



HUMILIATION OF THE PRINCES. 



223 



defenceless, divided, and bleeding, — great in nothing 
but recollections. On the other side, the enemy built 
forts and castles, bridges and custom-houses ; lorded 
it over the Rhine and its princes ; tore citizens from 
their homes, in the midst of peace, to lawless execu- 
tions, and ordered German sovereigns to Paris and 
Mainz, like valets. The last feeling of honour and 
nationality was dead." 

" It seemed to be understood," says Droysen, in 
the same spirit, " that the fall of the Empire involved 
the abolition of all territorial rights and institutions ; 
that the declaration of absolute sovereignty which 
Napoleon had launched against Germany, was of 
force to free her princes from all the checks and obli- 
gations, in virtue of which they held the inheritance 
of their forefathers. They had now, indeed, absolute 
sovereignty in name ; but which of them was strong 
enough to assert it against external aggression ? They 
had been eager to shake off the legitimate supremacy 
of their Emperor; now the iron yoke of a foreign 
c protector 9 was on their necks; and they were fain 
to seek compensation for the perpetual humiliations 
to which they were exposed, in arbitrary acts towards 
the subjects whom he had delivered over to their 
caprice, or to the still worse oppressions which he 
might choose to enjoin upon them." 



224 



DUTY TO RULERS. 



" We shall see hereafter the good that sprang out 
of all this evil ; but that was furthest from the inten- 
tions of the despot. All that he desired was, to ex- 
tort supplies from these princes and their territories ; 
to break them in to obedience, to hold them in com- 
plete subjection. Shortly after the peace of Pres- 
burg, when new misunderstandings with Austria 
arose, and Napoleon required that the whole French 
army should be fed by Germany, the King of Wiir- 
temberg resisted the demands of the French general ; 
on which he was told that ' he owed so much to the 
Emperor, that he ought to esteem himself fortunate 
in an opportunity of showing his gratitude/ 

"Yet even now Germany had not reached the 
lowest depth of degradation ; she had to be trodden 
out and winnowed before she could be regenerated. 
Not that the people were morally degraded : they had 
will, force, and indignation, but their habitual sense 
of duty to their rulers kept them quiet ; they had no 
other way of displaying their moral strength than 
by endurance." 

That the moral degradation so much complained 
of had not reached the body of the people, is asserted 
not only by M. Droysen, but by numerous other 
writers. We must confess however, that highly 
as we value the " habitual sense of duty to rulers," 



STATE OF GERMANY. 225 

as well as " endurance" of inevitable calamity, it 
does seem to us that these virtues were pushed 
to a very remarkable extent, considering the in- 
tolerable provocation, and the great length of time 
during which it was borne. A people trained to 
greater freedom of thought and independence of 
action would have seen that the moment for duty 
to rulers who had forgotten all duty to them was 
over ; and that the time for spontaneous action had 
arrived. Without, therefore, in the least degree un- 
dervaluing the heroic patriotism displayed by Ger- 
many in 1812 and 1813, we should be glad to see a 
little less tendency in modern German writers, es- 
pecially Prussians, to the old vice of self-laudation. 
They did, at last, what all men must do, whose coun- 
try labours under an insufferable yoke; and they 
did it with steady devotedness : but it must be re- 
membered that the conqueror's star was then no 
longer in the ascendant, and that he had begun to 
give proof of that heaven-sent madness which is the 
harbinger of perdition. We have spoken of the cor- 
ruption and backwardness of Austria : but Austria 
alone, under her great captain, the illustrious Arch- 
duke Charles, dared to stand up against Napoleon 
single-handed, while in the very height of his yet un- 
broken power. The truth is, that the whole country 

l 3 



226 



CLASS ANTIPATHIES. 



was feeble and languid, and for a time paralysed. 
Goethe says, in a letter dated 1804, " The whole of 
Germany is divided among the mischievous, the timor- 
ous, and the indifferent." Droysen's expression would 
appear to countenance the writers who assume a to- 
tally different moral condition in the people, and in 
the higher classes ; always (need we say ?) to the dis- 
advantage of the latter. But we see no evidence that 
this was the fact. Stein and Wilhelm von Humboldt, 
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, — the men who never 
despaired of their country, and at length saved it, — 
were not men of the people ; nor, admirably as the 
people obeyed their call, do we find any trace of an 
attempt at spontaneous movement among them. It 
is time that these class antipathies should be con- 
signed to the same contempt as national antipathies ; 
they rest upon no better basis'*. 

The only instructive inquiry is, what were the 
means by which a nation, once conspicuous for har- 

* It is unfortunate for the progress of sound opinions on social 
and political questions in Germany, that some of her most popular 
and eminent historians write under the influence of these antipathies. 
The value of Schlosser's History of the Eighteenth Century is so 
diminished by vehement and exclusive prejudices, that it is necessary 
to exercise great caution in admitting his evidence on certain sub- 
jects. His preposterous misrepresentations of everything concerning 
England teach us this lesson with regard to the rest. 



STATE OF GERMANY. 



227 



dihood and energy, had been brought into this state 
of feebleness and lethargy. 

Among the causes usually assigned, we find long 
and fierce religious wars ; frequent struggles between 
the nobles and the people; an exclusive municipal 
spirit, leading to the isolation of interests and sym- 
pathies; in short, the long and general distraction, 
by which the country had been physically and mo- 
rally wearied, bewildered, and exhausted. 

" For a long time," says a German writer, " the 
opulent and pacific inhabitants of the Imperial Cities 
had been well content to purchase immunity from all 
warlike toils, by hiring bands of mercenaries, led by 
noble, often princely, condottieri. Such a soldiery was 
of course eminently unnational, and consequently 
wholly without political ideas or attachments. In- 
deed, the character of the century extending from 
the Thirty Years' War to that of the French Revo- 
lution, was one of feebleness and indifference. Even 
the wars partook of this character. No great prin- 
ciple, — not even an earnest popular feeling, — was en- 
gaged in them. The French revolutionary war once 
more showed the world how unconquerable is an army 
inspired by an Idea." 

If this is true, as we believe it to be, what an awful 
responsibility rests on those who give the people 



228 



INFLUENCE OF LITERATURE. 



ideas ! How many of these potent stimulants have, in 
turn, rendered men unconquerable ! — the terror and 
the curse of those who did not happen to share the 
inspiration of the hour ! How many, have left them 
weary, disappointed, spiritless, doubting of all ideas, 
supine in the lowest materialism, the most cynical 
selfishness ! Such alternations of fever and prostra- 
tion are inevitable, so long as reason is disregarded 
or silenced, and men are not only permitted but ex- 
horted to give themselves up to the anarchy of im- 
pulse and passion. 

But it is impossible to form any just opinion of a 
country so extensively and profoundly subject to in- 
tellectual influences as Germany, without taking into 
account the state and tendencies of its Literature. If 
it be true that the literature of a nation must always 
be the exponent of its character and sentiments, it 
is no less true that it powerfully reacts on them; 
and of this, we think, abundant proof is not wanting 
in this our day. It is important, therefore, to learn 
what literary tastes had been formed, and what lite- 
rary influences exercised, at the period immediately 
preceding the French Revolution. 

Towards the end of the last century, the higher 
classes of Germany had, as w r e have seen, sunk their 
own nationality in that of Prance. While the noble 



OPINIONS ON MARRIAGE. 



229 



language which Luther had built up was almost ig- 
nored by "good society/' and regarded as a plebeian 
dialect, Frederic the Great had done all he could to 
give currency and authority to the literature of France, 
then at the pinnacle of its brilliancy, and also of its 
profligacy. The result could not be doubtful ; for 
Germany had little to oppose to the foreign torrent, 
nor could that little obtain a hearing among the more 
authoritative classes of society. So deeply seated 
however was the unchangeable dissimilarity of the 
two nations, that the views of life and society which 
were thus introduced, assumed a totally different 
colour in passing through their new medium. Li- 
centiousness took a form in Germany suited to the 
speculative, poetical, and affectionate character of the 
people. 

The views concerning marriage, and the relation 
between the sexes generally, are, in every country, 
strongly tinctured by the national character, and per- 
haps still more strongly react upon it. In England, 
where great freedom of action is combined with great 
rigour of opinion and a constant regard to public 
utility, marriage is accepted as a fait accompli, — an 
inevitable condition of human society; to be entered 
into freely, voluntarily, and with full right of selec- 
tion, but from which, when once entered into, there 



230 



OPINIONS ON MARRIAGE. 



is no escape ; a condition involving obligations of all 
others the most grave and sacred ; opening the only 
safe and practicable field for the exercise of certain 
affections, and putting those affections into full and 
constant requisition. In France, marriage was for- 
merly (and still is to a great extent) regarded as an 
important matter of family arrangement ; involving no 
thought of previous inclination in the parties chiefly 
concerned, and imposing on them no duties, except 
those affecting the common interests of the house, of 
which they were the temporary heads. Making no ap- 
peal to the affections, and possessing no inward force 
or sanctity, it furnished the romance-writer or the 
dramatist with a groundwork for the gay and amusing 
intricacies of his plot, or with an interminable theme 
for wit and satire, bright and hard as tempered steel. 

In Germany, from the time that all the conditions 
of social life were brought under discussion, the re- 
lation between the sexes became the subject of pas- 
sionate reverie, refined analysis, and intrepid theory. 
Writers and readers shrank from no novelty and no 
paradox. The imagination and feelings were syste- 
matically withdrawn from the control of reason, 
whose jurisdiction in "affairs of the heart" was denied 
altogether; and from traditionary morality, which 
was regarded as blind and narrow prejudice. Almost 



THE SENTIMENTAL PERIOD. 



231 



every relation and condition of social life was called 
in question, and the most difficult social problems 
were propounded, more frequently (need we add ?) 
than solved. 

An institution or estate pre-eminently requiring 
the perpetual presence of good sense, self-control, 
moderate expectations, and a firm and humble pre- 
paration for evil and weary hours, was not likely to 
fare better in the hands of the speculative sentimen- 
talists of Germany, than in those of the scoffing wits 
of France. Not only was every form of tedium 
and unhappiness which marriage can bring exhibited, 
but every conceivable mode of escape or mitigation, 
direct or indirect, suggested by this class of writers ; 
long before the most eloquent of French novelists 
had erected her formidable batteries against it, or 
the feebler herd of her admirers and imitators had 
invited the public to sympathize in their sorrows and 
disappointments. A tone of whining sentimentality 
was given to books and men, — the worst, because 
the most insidious form that selfishness can assume. 
" The history of the human heart/' says an ingenious 
critic, "as it manifests itself in the individual, was 
held to be more important than the history of man- 
kind. Vanity and affectation were called into play, 
to enhance the effect of these new creations. The 



232 



WERTHEE. 



poison of sentimentality (Ernpfindelei) , generated by 
peculiar circumstances in a body originally robust, 
spread, and caused an epidemy which is still not en- 
tirely eradicated from Germany, so prone to catch 
this disease, and to exhibit it under the most singular 
forms'*." At the time of the publication of Goethe's 
' Werther/ the national mind was in a peculiarly mor- 
bid and susceptible state. The discussion of public 
questions, the participation in public business, (at once 
the fruitful source, and the safe employment, of a na- 
tion's energy,) were forbidden to the people of Ger- 
many ; yet as it was impossible that they should not 
feel the vibration of that earthquake which shook the 
foundations of every received opinion and every esta- 
blished institution ; the result was a sort of feeble fer- 
mentation; a morbid enthusiasm (Schwarmerei) , of 
which the small world of Self was the object ; — an 
eternal " subjective" study; — and, at the same time, 
an uneasy consciousness of weakness, and a dread 
of every assault of truth and reason, whence alone 
strength could come. Men seemed designedly to lay 
aside all virility of character, and to outdo the weak- 
est woman in flaccid self-abandonment. Fortitude, 
energy, self-control, were treated as proofs of a hard, 
cold, prosaic nature, and were looked on with scorn. 
# Wolff. Allgemeine Gescliichte des Komans, Jena. 



WERTHER 



233 



" The influence of c Werther/ " says Professor Wolff, 
"was incomparably greater on the life, than on the 
literature, of that period." 

The good sense which was pre-eminent among the 
many gifts showered on Goethe, soon led him to per- 
ceive all that was false and pernicious in his own 
work. With his usual " subjective" way of looking 
at things (not to use a harsher word), Goethe always 
treated the production of ' Werther' as a sort of 
morbid crisis in his own mental condition ; — a means 
of throwing off certain peccant moral humours, of 
which he was well pleased to be rid. But he was im- 
placable towards those who set themselves to ape and 
caricature what had burst from him as a real, and, 
as he declared, painful confession. The contempt 
with which he always spoke of the " Liter atur der 
Enipfindsamkeit," is well known; but unfortunately, 
poisons operate more rapidly and more potently than 
antidotes; nor did all his scorn of the sentimental 
school correct the mischief done by his own beautiful 
creation. 

The grace and power with which c Werther ' is writ- 
ten are so incomparable, that it would prove little 
against a people to have been carried away by it ; but 
what can explain or justify the success of such a book 
as e Woldemar ; ? This success would be the most as- 



234 



WOLDEMAR. 



tonishing thing in the world, were not the production 
of it by a serene and virtuous philosopher, — Jacobi, — 
more astonishing still*. Such a symptom shows the 
height to which the disease had gone. The weariness 
and disgust with which we toiled through it, lead us 
to believe that very few of our readers have submitted 
to a similar labour. "We may, therefore, be excused 
for dwelling a few moments on a work about which 
volumes were in its day written, and over which 
rivers of tears were shed. Its prime characteristic 
is falsehood. There is not a person who is natural or 
true, nor an action that is probable. The men — espe- 
cially the hero — have no vestige of the manly cha- 
racter, — not even manly vices ; their et normal state" 
is that of a nervous, fantastic woman ; their emotions 
are paroxysms of hysterical and impotent violence : 
they weep, sob, kneel, fall on the sofa, on each other's 
necks, on the necks of all their pure and sublime 
heroines, sometimes for joy, sometimes for sorrow, 
— sometimes, as it seems to us, without any assign- 
able reason ; for there are no tragical incidents, nor 
even any natural passions, to account for these de- 
monstrations. All the distresses in the book are the 

* Schlosser says that " c Woldemar ' presents an accurate view of 
the peculiarities of the Jacobi family. Their habit of self-torment- 
ing about trifles, of magnifying every feeling and expression, of idol- 
izing one another — all is there." 



WOLDEMAR. 



235 



offspring of selfishness and vanity,, nursed into a sort 
of madness ; and concurring with weak nerves, weak 
intellects, a thorough prostration of character, and a 
thorough perversion of views. 

We beg not to be understood to share the odious 
and cynical notion of the impossibility of friendship 
between persons of different sexes. Such friendships 
are, we know, not impossible, — they are, we trust, 
not rare ; but they must be established on reasonable 
grounds, and conceived by reasonable persons. The 
assumption that a passion, miscalled friendship, which 
absorbs the whole being, and renders life intolerable out 
of the sight of its object, can be entertained without 
prejudice to conjugal fidelity or to maiden freedom 
and purity, is the thing which renders this book pe- 
culiarly absurd, mischievous, and, at the same time, 
characteristic. Licentious books, written by vicious 
men, are unfortunately confined to no nation ; they 
are of the nature of open warfare, and he who reads 
them knows to what he exposes himself ; but this 
complete misstatement of everyday facts, these radi- 
cally false and impracticable views of the nature, du- 
ties, and position of either sex, inculcated by a man 
of unblemished life, and not only acquiesced in, but 
admired by numbers of virtuous and enlightened peo- 
ple, is a national phenomenon worthy of remark. 



236 



LUCINDE. 



There is a review of 'Woldemar' by Frederic 
Schlegel, which contains some admirable observa- 
tions. Who that reads them would believe that they 
were written by the author of a work so notoriously 
immoral, that its title is sometimes used to qualify 
the lax and vicious period preceding the French in- 
vasion? The expression, die Lucinde Zeit, — "the 
Lucinda time 5 '' — sufficiently marks the sensation it 
created, and the reprobation it called forth. In this 
case however the author's domestic relations, as well 
as those of several of his friends, are said to have 
been of the most irregular and experimental kind ; 
and of these his novel may be taken to be a sort 
of defence. It enjoyed a degree of popularity, and 
excited a degree of controversy, which are totally 
inexplicable from any beauty or merit it possesses. 
Nothing, indeed, but the necessity of appreciating 
the state of the public mind indicated by its whilom 
reputation, would enable any one now to go through 
the task of reading, or trying to read it. £ Lucinde ' 
is fallen into deserved neglect. The admiration ex- 
pressed for 'Woldemar' by so great a man as Wil- 
helm von Humboldt would be unintelligible did we 
not know this character of the times, and how strong 
and general was the taste for a certain speculative 
dissoluteness, which tried at all the props of human 



SOCIAL PARADOXES. 



237 



society. Of the corresponding practice we say no- 
thing ; there is plenty of that everywhere. What is 
peculiar, is the reducing aberrations of the affections 
to a system, and philosophizing upon them in the 
most elaborate manner. 

Not that the social paradoxes rife at this period 
were by any means confined to the domain of u an- 
tlivopologisch-'dsthetisch" theory. Anybody conver- 
sant with the private history of those days knows the 
extravagant " combinations " which were reduced to 
practice. Glimpses of these new and ingenious ways 
of throwing a little variety into the antiquated insti- 
tution of marriage, and the monotony of domestic 
life, may be perceived in the memoirs and correspon- 
dences of the time ; but they are hardly intelligible 
to matter-of-fact Englishmen, whose very sins have 
a sort of conformity to established usages. We have 
observed however with satisfaction, that sensible Ger- 
mans, who lived through those times, do not affect to 
separate public from private morality, by the broad 
line sometimes attempted to be drawn between them. 
They perceive that the want of sane views of life, of 
manly self-control, of principles well thought out and 
steadily adhered to, had greatly enfeebled the whole 
nation. The self- studying, self-indulging habits of 
private life of the period in question went far to 



238 



SENTIMEN TALIS M . 



prepare sober and far-sighted men for the public 
ruin"*. 

Were we disposed at present to exhibit German 
sentiment alism on its ludicrous side, matter enough 
is at hand ; but this is not the time or place for it. 
We cannot however refuse our readers one little trait 
recorded by Hoffmann, whose satirical spirit revelled 
in what was passing around him. 

When he was in Bamberg in 1808, the Princess of 
Neufchatel, daughter of the Duke of Bavaria, who 
was residing there, came to visit her father. The 
director of the theatre wanted to celebrate her birth- 
day, and requested Hoffmann to write a prologue. 
He says, — 

" I threw together a heap of vulgar sentimentality, 
composed music to suit, and it was represented; — 
lights, horns, echoes, mountains, rivers, trees with 
names carved on them, flowers, garlands, — nothing 
was spared. It took amazingly, and I received thirty 
Carolines froxn the Princess's mother, for the emo- 
tion I had procured her [far die verschaffte Ruhrimg), 
accompanied with very gracious expressions. At a 
certain passage in the prologue, — ' I went, — I flew, — 

* "We here find that virtue of feeling preached," says Schlosser 
of ' Woldemar,' " which has proved so ruinous to us Grerrnans ; be- 
cause it does not only demoralize, but relax and enervate, and tends 
to mix and confound all notions of virtue and vice." 



ANTICIPATED CHANGES. 



239 



I rushed into her arms!' (an enormously fine climax) 
— the mother and daughter embraced weeping in the 
ducal box ! The prologue had also pleased the public, 
and was demanded for another day. The ducal per- 
sonages again appeared in their box, and, at the same 
passage, wept and embraced with the greatest punc- 
tuality ! whereupon the public testified their satis- 
faction by loud clapping of hands. My heart laughed 
within me." 

Yet we must admit that these deplorable weak- 
nesses and affections were connected with some of 
the most admirable and engaging peculiarities of 
the German character. The days are coming, nay, 
are already come, when literature and philosophy will 
cease to play the great part in Germany which have 
long distinguished that country from ail others, — in 
how many respects to its infinite advantage ! The 
days probably are coming, when the free, natural ex- 
pression of the affections will be " unmanly," and 
when the embraces and tears of a parting mother will 
be avoided, as " a scene." It is, we fear, true, that a 
great and widely diffused political activity, and an 
exciting public life, are almost incompatible with the 
high station occupied in Germany by literature and 
art. They have been her queens; they must now 
become her playthings. The State, like a jealous 



240 



ANTICIPATED CHANGES. 



parent, will claim the thoughts of all her stronger 
sons, and will leave the culture of Letters and Arts 
to the less energetic. It is also, we fear, true, that 
virility and firmness of character are apt to dege- 
nerate into hardness, and that the feelings are not 
habitually suppressed without prejudice to their ten- 
derness and force ; — at any rate, to that child-like re- 
liance on sympathy which has so great a charm, — a 
charm nearly unknown to English society. Germany, 
— the Germany of our early love and our imagina- 
tion, — will cease to be : her ingenuous weaknesses, 
and her high intellectual superiority, will equally dis- 
appear. We could weep like the heroes of her novels, 
when we think that singularities we have sometimes 
laughed at, and always loved, (akin as they are to 
sweet and noble qualities,) will be swept away by the 
tide of " public business/' But this is one of the 
dilemmas which present themselves at every turn in 
human life; calling forth the fruitless lamentations 
of those who want to combine impossible conditions ; 
while reasonable men weigh them, when choice is 
within their power, and accept the Inevitable with 
resignation when it is not. 

The causes we have thus briefly glanced at, were 
in operation throughout Germany. We must now 
examine rather more closely those which were pecu- 



AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA. 



241 



liar to Prussia ; as that power must necessarily occupy 
the most prominent part in any history of the times. 
Her faults contributed the most largely to the com- 
mon ruin of Germany ; and her energy, and uncon- 
querable perseverance, to its emancipation. Her dis- 
grace was the deepest, her resentment the most ardent, 
her triumphs the most brilliant. There is, we may 
add, another reason why Austria and Prussia, if equal 
in merit, will never be so in renown. Prussia has a 
hundred tongues, where Austria has one ; and a taste 
for celebrity, — her enemies say, for self-celebration,— 
to which her stately elder sister is an utter stranger. 
The difference, the antagonism, between these two 
nations will probably never be effaced ; nor is it to be 
desired that either should lose so much of its indi- 
viduality as to resemble the other. At the time we 
are looking back to, however, it was not difference, 
but hostility, that prevailed between them* 

"Germany," says Arndt, "had become a field on 
which the pretensions of the two great Powers, — the 
old and the new,— the time-hallowed traditions of 

* Some deputies from Baden begged the Prussian general, M81- 
lendorf, who was supposed to have, and to defend, the same interests 
as those of the Imperialists, to grant them a safe convoy for their 
corn-waggons. His reply was very characteristic : " Of what use 
would it be ? Suppose I should grant your request, the Austrian 
posts would not respect it." 

M 



242 



UNPOPULARITY OF PRUSSIA. 



the Empire which hung about Austria, and the vigour, 
enterprise, and ambition of the youthful kingdom of 
Prussia, were to be decided. They were decided in 
favour of the latter ; but at what a cost of common 
national feeling ! What seeds of hatred and jealousy 
were then sown, the bitter harvest of which was abun- 
dantly reaped by the victor ! South and Middle 
Germany, the fruitful mother of arts, poetry, and 
letters, saw with dislike and resentment the attempt 
to throw her into the shade. The forced fruits of the 
cold and sandy soil of the North, chiefly transplanted 
from France, were distasteful to them. Frederic the 
Great had established academies, and hired poets and 
philosophers ; but most of them were foreigners, and 
the better and nobler among my countrymen could 
learn nothing from men they hated." 

Prussia had lost in popularity as much as she had 
gained in power. The part she took in the peace of 
Basel, the partition of Poland, and the acquisitions 
called indemnities, but generally regarded as spolia- 
tions, had alienated from her the hearts of Germany. 
Nor were the manners of her people, and especially 
of her soldiery, calculated to cast a veil over her 
offensive superiority, or to conciliate those whom she 
had injured and overborne. "What was called the 
Markish spirit, the quintessence of " Preussenthum" 



UNPOPULARITY OF PRUSSIA. 



243 



was intensely offensive to the rest of Germany; it 
was another name for insolence and brutality. It is 
impossible to deny that even now Prussia is regarded 
with more respect than cordiality by Southern Ger- 
mans, towards whom the Prussians have constantly 
behaved not only with the prepotenza of a conquer- 
ing people, but with the airs of intellectual superiority 
of a people of pedants'*. There exists between them, 
we are convinced, that " incompatibility of temper" 
for which there is notoriously no cure ; but, at the 
time in question, the overbearing spirit, the manners, 
at once unbending and coarse, of the Prussian army, 
and the pretensions of the Prussian Government, had 
heightened this incompatibility into fear and hatred. 

m In 1792," says Jacobs, " the first body of Prus- 
sian troops marched through Gotha to the Rhine, — 

* The dislike produced by these assumptions is by no means worn 
out. To the easy, well-bred, insoucians Austrians, stiff manners and 
pretensions to " Anfklarung" and " Litelligenz" are peculiarly anti- 
pathic, for reasons good and bad. Their dislike is compounded of 
an unwilling recognition of the indisputable intellectual superiority 
of the Prussians, and of a very quick and willing perception of what 
is disagreeable and ridiculous in the assumption of it. " Yous venez 
de Berlin, Madame; vous nous trouvez sans doute tres-stupides," 
were the first words addressed to me by the lively and agreeable 
old Countess C , when I was introduced to her. 

The aristocratical party in Austria has now, as we hear, got so 
far as to designate the popular party by the opprobrious title of " die 
Intelligenz," as opposed to "die Aristocratie." It must be admitted 
that this does great honour to their candour and naivete. 

M 2 



244 CONDUCT OF PRUSSIAN TROOPS. 



the first scene of what a tragedy ! Had we been able 
to foresee, or to imagine, what was to follow, and 
what a yoke Germany was destined to bear, nobody 
would have thought it possible to live through it. 

" If the surrender of the fortified places in South- 
ern Germany filled all hearts with consternation, the 
conduct of the Prussian troops in the towns they 
occupied, inspired grief and disgust. The army of 
that nation from which alone protection and deliver- 
ance could come, was demoralized by the arrogance 
of its leaders, and daily weakened the respect which 
South Germany had long been accustomed to pay to 
the Prussian name. While in the common men the 
feeling of honour was extinguished by servile treat- 
ment*, and only habit and fear bound them to their 
banners, their officers, the majority of whom had never 
looked an enemy in the face, spoke with sneering 
contempt of Napoleon's army. c They have not seen 
Prussians yet ! } said they ; e if this forced inactivity 
were now at an end, the victory would soon be ours, 

* In 1840 I was assured by a G-erman gentleman that, on his first 
visit to Berlin, the sentinel at the Brandenburg Grate held out his 
hand to him for alms. This fact, and the change it indicated, were 
the more astonishing to me from what I had seen of the deportment 
of Prussian soldiers, levied and trained on the system which the 
nation owes to Scharnhorst, to Frederic "William III., and to adver- 
sity. 



CONDUCT OF PRUSSIAN TROOPS. 



245 



— a victory probably only too easy to be honourable/ 
To doubt of this was not permitted ; any mention of 
the series of victories won by the French, was treated 
with scorn, and, if persisted in, punished with blows. 
I remember hearing that an old general in some com- 
pany asked the ladies, with French fatuity whether 
they would not favour him with some commissions 
for Paris; — and that a major, before the battle of 
Jena, boasted 'that he would make that scoundrel 
Bonaparte his groom/ Nor was this all. The officers 
behaved as if in a conquered country, without the 
least regard to decency or propriety, even towards the 
Duke of Saxe Gotha himself, or his capital. They 
lived in contemptible indolence and boundless de- 
bauchery ; followed maid-servants in an evening into 
the very houses of their masters, and forced them- 
selves by violence into private societies, where they 
created disturbances, — all with the connivance of their 
superiors, who did not venture to listen to any com- 
plaint. 

"When the Prussian troops were quartered in 
Gotha, Loffler, the Superintendent- General, who had 
been a regimental chaplain in the Prussian service, 
received General Huchel into his house, though he 
was exempted from the obligation to give quarters. 
He expected that Riichel would behave with decency 



248 



CONDUCT OF PRUSSIAN TROOPS. 



in a house which had a kind of sacred character. 
How his expectations were fulfilled may be imagined 
from this. The soldiers, according to the then brutal 
practice of the Prussian army, used to be laid on 
straw in one of the rooms on the ground-floor, and 
beaten with sticks, which drew together a crowd of 
people. Loffler wrote a polite note, begging that these 
military executions might be transferred to a more 
fitting place. The answer he received was, ' Shoe- 
maker, stick to your last/ The public was indig- 
nant. Loffler quitted his house, and put it under 
the protection of the authorities." 

Such incidents, which were common to all the towns 
on the cordon, excited disgust and rancour, and ra- 
tional men looked forward with deep anxiety to the 
conflict of such troops with the enemy, — anxiety far 
more than justified by the battle of Jena. For at 
the very time that the insolence of the Prussian sol- 
diery was the most intolerable, and their confidence 
the most undoubting, the whole fabric of the State, 
civil and military, was in a state of rottenness and 
decrepitude. 

"On the 16th of October," says Jacobs, " these 
very boasters re-appeared in Gotha as prisoners, 
weary and disarmed, escorted by a small party of 
Voltigeurs." 



COUNT HENKEL VON DONNERSMARK. 247 

From that day, let ns add, to the year 1815, the 
passage of French or other troops through this pretty 
little town and state was almost incessant. B,epre- 
sentations of the moral state of the Prussian army, 
like the foregoing, extracted from the works of a ci- 
vilian, might easily be corroborated by a hundred 
others. But we had rather give one from the pen 
of a thorough soldier. Trained in the preposterous 
discipline of Frederic II., he had full proof of what 
men reduced to the condition of machines are w r orth 
in the hour of peril. He not only witnessed, but 
shared, their inglorious overthrow ; and he also lived 
to see coxcombs and puppets converted by mis- 
fortune into earnest and intrepid soldiers. At the 
age of seventy-one, Count Henkel of Donnersmark* 
has published a simple and soldier-like statement 
of the facts which came under his own observation 
in the course of his long military career; relating 
nothing, as he expressly says, but what he himself 
saw and heard. He is, fortunately, entirely without 
literary pretension ; and tells his story with a homely 

# The mother of Count Henkel of Donnersniark (and grandmother 
of Ottilie, Frau von Goethe,) was Grande Maitresse at the Court of 
Frederic the Great. She died at Weimar, at a very advanced age, 
about ten years ago. The late Grand Duke spoke of her memory 
as a storehouse of curious and interesting anecdote. He added, " I 
shall never forgive Countess Henkel for not leaving memoirs." 



248 



THE PIGTAIL. 



air of truth, and a genial mixture of earnestness and 
humour. His observations show good sense, and his 
sentiments are those of a brave, loyal, and humane 
man. 

Count Henkel was born at Potsdam in 1775, "in 
the house next to the Garde-du-corps barracks, which 
belonged to my father." His father was a Lieute- 
nant-General • the young man was born, as well as 
bred, to arms. His memoirs begin with an exact 
account of the life of a young Prussian officer of his 
day. No discipline was ever better adapted to sub- 
stitute the kind of intelligence which the horse- 
breaker or dog-trainer calls into action, in the place 
of human discrimination and reason. " Politics were 
never so much as spoken of among the young of- 
ficers ; a newspaper was seldom or never seen ; re- 
marks upon an order, let it come from what source 
it might, were not even thought of." But if the 
mind was left completely waste and inert, the body 
and its covering were objects of the most elaborate 
care. "The stock of three fingers' -breadth, the four 
curls on each side the head (frizzed and powdered 
of course), the pigtail with a large cockade, were 
indispensable." How envied was that Captain von 
Schallenfels, of old Count HenkePs regiment, whose 
pigtail required seventy or eighty ells of ribbon to tie 



PRUSSIAN GENERALS. 



249 



it, and trailed on the ground, so that he was obliged 
to tuck it into his coat-pocket on parade ! 

"We were always wishing for war/' says Count 
Henkel; "with whom, was a matter of perfect in- 
difference. It never occurred to anybody to reflect 
what the Government was, or ought to be. We stood 
far more in awe of the inspector than of the King ; and 
the annual visit of the former furnished the subject 
of all the thoughts, conversations, hopes and fears> 
of our little world for the whole year. We hardly 
knew where Berlin was ; Konigsberg was the c Resi- 
denz;' and if any of us went thither on leave, he 
brought back all the news, and was regarded as a 
travelled man. There was a dragoon regiment quar- 
tered at Tilsit, a few miles from us ; we never met ; 
but that did not prevent our entertaining a mortal 
aversion to each other." 

This, then, was the training of the military youth 
of Prussia, at the time that France was tempering the 
spirits of her sons in the furnace of the Revolution ! 

But an enemy far inferior to the French would 
have proved an over-match for troops commanded by 
such officers as Count Henkel describes. In the year 
1795, he says, he was present at a manoeuvre where 
he became acquainted with all the staff-officers and 
chefs d'escadron. e< It is worth while/' he adds, " to 

m 3 



250 THE PRUSSIAN ARMY. 



to give an ilea ^ir. the stare of it was." His army- 
list begins thus:- — ''' Lieutenant- General von Mar- 
en Lis hirse; another was a corpulent fo// vivo/at. 
''•'sorely incommoded by a brisk paee. ;; As a set-off 
against the eiiemiuacy of their habits, they never spoke 
without the n ere est oaths. The gouty General von 

received H rukel for the hrst time with his customary 
preface. Mord Schwerenoth Donnerwetter, mon ami," 
etc. 

When King Frederic WLliam II. died/'* says Count 
Henkel. "ana Frederic William III. ascended the 



Here it is. word for word. ; His Majesty Frederic 
Wilkam II. has been pleased to die. We have there- 
fore to swear allegiance to a new king. What his 

we can't exactly tell: but that does not signify. Herr 
Gerichtschreiier. read the oath aloud/' ;J 
When — e read these things, and thick that within 



PUBLIC OPINION IN PRUSSIA. 



251 



the lifetime of one mart, these coarse, inane, and (as 
it proved) cowardly caricatures of soldiers, have been 
succeeded "by the brave and accomplished men by 
whom the Prussian army is now officered, we see not 
only that the whole presiding spirit of the Monarchy 
has undergone a vast and salutary change, but also, 
in how short a time such a change spreads through 
the whole body of a nation. Indeed, rapid as the 
progress has been in most of the countries of Europe 
within the last half-century, in none is it more striking 
than in Prussia. A retrospect of fifty years seems to 
carry us back centuries. 



We must now turn to another very striking ac- 
count of the state of public opinion in Prussia. " It 
was," says Herr von TToltmann"*, " extremely impor- 
tant to ascertain accurately the dispositions of the 
Prussian court and people ; for, even where the peo- 
ple have no constitutional character, their voice be- 
comes of the greatest weight, as soon as their culture 

* The book from which I quote was published under the title of 
c Memoiren des Freiherrn von S a.' Though the personal nar- 
rative, or what affects to be so, is disfigured by vanity and egotism, 
it is accompanied by a very vivid and interesting picture of the Prus- 
sian court, army, and people at the period we are considering, and 
contains many just and striking remarks. 



252 



PUBLIC OPINION IN PRUSSIA. 



is so far advanced that they can hardly tolerate a 
government which does not share their own social 
and political character and ideas. This was now un- 
questionably the case in Berlin. 

" I ask myself/' he continues, " what the state of 
public opinion in Prussia at that time really was ; 
and I find the answer very difficult. 

" It has often been said that the French army had 
caught a sort of delirium, together with ideas of true 
liberty, from fighting in America. The Prussian 
was in a wild ferment in consequence of having re- 
turned from the field without fighting. It was mani- 
fest that Frederic's reign had given them an impulse, 
the motive force of which lay partly in the personal 
character of the great monarch, partly in the con- 
sciousness of the exertions by which success had been 
obtained. As this influence was no more, and as the 
spirit which prompted those exertions had gradually 
subsided, whence could a people without public life, 
— without that daily excitement which is kept alive 
by a constitutional government, derive any permanent 
and genuine public spirit ? A pride built on mere 
ancestry became the necessary substitute for it, and 
especially in the army; since Frederic II. had chiefly 
appealed to the feeling of honour peculiar to the 
officers, as men of birth. To this they clung ; and an 



SPTRIT OF THE ARISTOCRACY. 



253 



inert posterity regarded the glorious deeds of their 
ancestors in the Seven Years' War as a family in- 
heritance. But this view of the matter, and the pre- 
tensions which they founded upon it, were w T holly at 
variance with the spirit which had arisen towards the 
close of the century. Both as officers of the heroic 
age of Frederic, (which they assumed, though without 
any ground, to be,) and as nobles, they were exaspe- 
rated at the rising military glory of the French. 
They took credit for whatever was brilliant in the 
short contest of Prussia with the French people, at 
the beginning of the Revolution ; and the little ten- 
dency the result of this contest had to raise the repu- 
tation of the Prussian arms, was thrown on the inca- 
pacity of their leaders ; but still more on the mis- 
conduct of foreign powers. ' Let Prussia/ said they, 
'but once enter the lists with France, and the su- 
periority of her highborn officers of the school of 
Frederic the Great, over the French bourgeois troops, 
would soon appear/ Nobody even asked the question, 
whether there was any spirit among the common sol- 
diers. It is certain that the only enthusiasm felt by 
the troops had been for the person and the deeds of 
the great King. I am aware that such recollections 
long retain their influence over the common people, — 
an influence which governments ought sedulously to 



254 



SPIRIT OF THE ARMY. 



perpetuate and strengthen by education. But mere 
recollections, however glorious, are not sufficient to 
excite popular enthusiasm ; they are not even compa- 
rable, in this respect, to the feeling of ancestry, which 
is more concentred, and acts upon minds of greater 
refinement. The only means of working on the Prus- 
sian soldier, was through his hatred and contempt of 
the French ; and even these had greatly subsided, 
since many seductive accounts of the new civil insti- 
tutions, the constitution of the army, etc. in France, 
had reached the ears of the Prussian soldiers. The 
general spirit of the troops was, therefore, directly 
opposed to that of their officers, — an opposition lead- 
ing inevitably to fatal results in case of a war with 
France. 

u But the disposition of the common soldier formed 
no element of public opinion in Prussia. How, 
indeed, could it find an utterance, where it had no 
constitutional organ, and where f silent obedience was 
still exacted from the whole people ? In this absence 
of all popular voice, the officers assumed, with the 
greater arrogance, to have their opinions regarded as 
constituting public opinion ; and they succeeded the 
more easily, since the most aristocratic corps were 
quartered in Potsdam and Berlin. Such a mixture of 
bravery and insolence, of honour and debauchery, of 



PRINCE LOUIS FERDINAND. 



255 



attempts at elegant manners and turbulent offensive 
behaviour, as was exhibited in the persons of these 
officers, must be witnessed to be believed ; — it cannot 
be described. The one thing which chiefly distin- 
guished them all was, contempt of the middle classes. 
A fine horse they prized above the most estimable 
man ; and they thought they should have easy work 
with the French, because they were officered by 
roturiers^. 

" Strong as were the King's military tastes, he 
had nothing in common with this spirit. Everything 
showy, noisy, and boastful, was utterly distasteful to 
him. He had no vanity, and least of all was he 
disposed to plume himself on the deeds and fame of 
his ancestors. He was, therefore, wholly unfit to be 
the hero of such officers ; and though this certainly 
did him no dishonour, yet it had its disadvantages. 
He was too quiet and amiable to put down their in- 
flated arrogance with a strong hand. 

" There was, however, a prince of the royal blood 
who might be regarded as the impersonation of the 

* There is a domestic tragedy of great merit called c Die Macht 
der Verhaltnisse,' by Ludwig Robert, brother of the celebrated Eahel, 
which powerfully illustrates the consequences of this intolerable 
usurpation. It turns on the refusal of an officer (of course a noble- 
man) to fight a roturier man of letters, whose sister he had wronged 
and insulted. 



256 



PRINCE LOUIS FERDINAND. 



officer-spirit of that time. Brave to fool-hardiness, 
— equally endowed with brilliant qualities, and prone 
to admire them in others, — prouder of his personal 
advantages than of his rank, and yet very proud of 
being a Prince of Prussia, — celebrated for his grace 
and address in all bodily exercises, — highly gifted with 
the talent most fitted to charm society, music, — a 
passionate admirer of women, and estimating volup- 
tuousness above purity of morals, — liberal often to 
munificence, but never restrained by a strict sense of 
justice, — burning with military glory, rather than as- 
siduous in acquiring military science, and regarding 
the new order of things in France with equal contempt 
and hatred, — Prince Louis Ferdinand was most justly 
regarded by the officers of the Guards, and those who 
resembled them, as the Ideal of a youthful hero and a 
Prussian officer. He was the loudest organ of what 
was then called public opinion in Prussia; and around 
him congregated all the various elements of society in 
Berlin, to whom hatred of the French served as a com- 
mon point of attraction. Among them were the cele- 
brated historian, J ohannes von Miiller"^, and another 

* We shall see hereafter a melancholy picture of this eminent 
writer, but feeble and unprincipled man, bowed to the earth under 
the shame of French favours and French decorations. M. Ancillon 
was descended from a French refugee family, and himself a Protes- 
tant minister. He was tutor to the present King of Prussia. 



THE QUEEN AND PRINCESSES. 



257 



historian, more known as a statesman and philosopher, 
Ancillon. Miiller seems never to have possessed the 
smallest personal dignity. He submitted to be the 
butt of Prince Lonis and his companions. This ren- 
ders his subsequent career intelligible, and his fall 
less shocking than it would otherwise be. Ancillon, 
who, in virtue of his descent and his profession, 
affected a sort of polish, half clerical, half French, 
combined with German Humanitdt, disliked Napo- 
leon as he disliked Luther. He thought him vulgar, 
tasteless, and proud. 

" It may easily be imagined, that a tone given by 
such a prince of the blood as Louis Ferdinand to a 
swarm of brilliant officers of the highest rank, and by 
two such writers as Miiller and Ancillon, — the organs 
of learning among the higher classes, — was ardently 
caught by them, especially since it nattered all their 
interests and prejudices. It was of course adopted 
with still greater passion by the women. 

" No means were left untried to induce the Queen 
to declare loudly her aversion to the French, and her 
views and habits of thinking naturally inclined her 
that way ; but her disposition was too kindly and 
gentle for hatred, and the King's entire reserve on the 
subject imposed a restraint on her. It was not till 
Napoleon, who supposed her to be the leader of the 



258 



OPINIONS OF STATESMEN. 



party he detested, attacked her with bitterness and 
brutality, that she really became AYhat he believed 
her. Till that time, the Princess Louisa Radzivil, 
sister of Prince Louis, might with greater justice be 
regarded as the soul of the female opposition to Na- 
poleon in Prussia. Princess William"*, incapable of 
taking any part in intrigue, might be considered the 
personification of the German nature, as opposed to 
the French. It was easy, from the manner in which 
a woman expressed herself concerning the Court of 
St. Cloud, to distinguish whether she belonged to the 
circle of Princess Louisa or to that of Princess Wil- 
liam. The former spoke with scorn and derision of 
the parvenu court ; the latter, with the sort of shud- 
der which an evil and impure spirit excites ; and this 
difference, more or less, pervaded the whole female 
society of Berlin, which was almost without an ex- 
ception eager for the war. 

"Among the men, on the other hand, and espe- 
cially the most respected and eminent statesmen, 
many were opposed to it. They weighed with pru- 

* Died 1846. A Princess of Hessen Homburg, — mother of the 
Princes Waldemar and Adalbert, and of Princess Marie, now Queen 
of Bavaria. Thirty-five years after the period here referred to, when 
I saw this noble-looking woman at Berlin, she was still the perfect 
type of a G-erman princess. It would have been equally impossible 
to mistake her country or her station. 



PRINCE LOUIS FERDINAND. 



259 



dent deliberation the civil and military condition of 
France against that of Prussia ; they well knew that 
the spirit of Frederic the Great was extinct, and that 
all which he had kept in vigour and efficiency now 
subsisted in form alone, and they dreaded any kind 
of shock to so unsound a fabric. Men of this kind 
are never loud, and their voices were accordingly 
hardly heard in the storm of public excitement." 

The vague restlessness which precedes great poli- 
tical tempests was already in the air. 

" It was a very unquiet time," says Count Henkel ; 
66 people were all greatly excited, and did not really 
know about what. The army, with its mass of in- 
valid staff- officers, and its very few efficient generals, 
was calculated to inspire any sober man with alarm. 
The younger officers, however, did not think of this ; 
they only wanted war ; and some of those who com- 
posed the society of Prince Louis Ferdinand, were 
certainly guilty of excesses, though by no means such 
as Napoleon was pleased to impute to them. Prince 
Louis, full of unemployed talent, and thoroughly 
debauched, was constantly offending the King, who 
treated him with the utmost indulgence and kind- 
ness, spite of disorders which often merited severe 
punishment." 

We have already given a portrait of this brilliant 



260 



FREDERIC WILLIAM III. 



and highly-gifted young man, of whom so much has 
been said and written by friend and foe. Whatever 
was the personal ascendancy he exercised, his histo- 
rical importance is derived solely from his appear- 
ing as the representative of certain popular sentiments, 
which had a powerful and pernicious influence on the 
fortunes of Prussia. It is clear that the two cardinal 
points of man's character, good sense and principle, 
were wanting in his. His life would have been less 
useful to his country than was his death : that gave 
the first salutary shock to the empty dreams of the 
army, which beheld in him the type of its own fan- 
cied invincibility. But far different qualities were 
required in the man who was to endure, together 
with the people, the long and dreary winter of cala- 
mity that was at hand; and these, notwithstanding 
some shortcomings, were found in their less brilliant, 
but far more estimable King. 

It is impossible to read the memoirs of Count 
Henkel, who, from the accession of Frederic William 
III., had constant opportunities of observing him 
in private, and who tells a number of characteristic 
anecdotes of him, without being struck with the ex- 
treme simplicity, good sense, and earnestness of the 
King. To a superficial view, his character is neither 
imposing nor touching; but in the great moments 



FREDERIC WILLIAM III. 



261 



which try the soul, it became both. His scruples, if not 
always enlightened, were always conscientious; and, 
in regard to the passage of his life for which he has 
been most censured, posterity will perhaps acknowledge 
that, in temporizing as he did, — granting, not the con- 
stitution which he had incautiously promised, but a 
number of institutions calculated to prepare the safe 
and permanent introduction of a constitution, — he did 
in fact make an heroic sacrifice of his own popularity 
and reputation. He loved his subjects better than 
their applause, and bore the blame even of cowardly 
desertion of his word, rather than peril a great work 
by precipitate compliance. By the abolition of serf- 
age, and by other important agrarian reforms; by 
constant and vigilant attention to the education of 
the people, the administration of justice, the financial 
and economical administration of the country ; above 
all, by the institution of the Provincial States, Frederic 
William III. founded a school of political and admi- 
nistrative knowledge and practice. Had equal good 
sense been shown in the consolidation and use of 
these institutions ; had that ardour which has been 
squandered on impracticable theories, been devoted 
to the gradual and peaceable extension and improve- 
ment of what had been already gained, far greater 
and more permanent progress would have been made 



262 



FREDERIC WILLIAM III. 



towards good government than can ever be achieved 
by the far-reaching and vague projects of declamatory 
reformers. 

C( The lax and profligate reign of Frederic William 
II./' says a writer little inclined to king- worship, 
" had left the finances in a state which it would have 
required all the order and frugality of his successor 
to retrieve, even in times of peace. Trade was tram- 
melled by guilds and privileges ; the peasantry in a 
state of serfage; the middle classes constantly irri- 
tated and humiliated by the wanton insolence of the 
army. Nobody was so sensible of these abuses as the 
King ; but his integrity and good sense wanted the 
vigorous self-reliance of sovereign spirits : he was re- 
strained by tenderness towards old servants, and by 
fear of the effects of change on the tranquillity of the 
country. Temperate, simple, and virtuous himself, 
he had not sufficient energy to stem the torrent of 
licentiousness which had invaded court and city ; and 
which the dangerous example of his cousin, and the 
still more dangerous tone of the reigning literature, 
rendered irresistible." 

Even in the presumptuous season of youth, at the 
moment when everything was done to blind and in- 
toxicate him, Frederic William III. showed the same 
cautious and anxious temper; the same distrust of, 



DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS. 



263 



and distaste for, loud and showy demonstrations. He 
had a clear perception of the danger impending over 
his country. "In 1806," says Count Henkel, "before 
the battle of Jena, the King had a foresight of what 
was to come. "While the wildest presumption reigned 
on every side, he said to me and another young officer, 
c This cannot end well ; the confusion is indescri- 
bable : the gentlemen {die Herren) will not believe 
this, and maintain that I am too young, and don't 
understand these matters. I wish I may be wrong/ 
He was right. It was impossible we should not be 
beaten." 

We must now return to see what was passing at 
Berlin, and what were the diplomatic relations of 
Prussia with France. 

" On the 15th of August, 1806," says Ludwig von 
Woltmann, "the French ambassador gave a dinner 
to the diplomatic corps and the highest Prussian of- 
ficers of state, in celebration of Napoleon's birthday. 
Already might be heard the indistinct mutterings of 
that storm which broke over Prussia and the whole 
north of Germany in the autumn, and brought down 
upon the French Government the curses of all Ger- 
man patriots. But, at this feast, Prussians and Ger- 
mans drank to the Emperor Napoleon ; though here 
and there the champagne passed untasted from the lips. 



264 



THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR. 



" The diplomatic corps at Berlin had at that 
time peculiar elements of coldness and dissension. 
At the beginning of the French Revolution, the 
French embassy was regarded at all European courts 
as an inevitable evil, from which all shrank, and which 
all regarded as temporary ; ridiculed with high-bred 
contempt, and looked at with curiosity to see how it 
was to end. Hence arose an unusual unity and cor- 
diality among the other members of the diplomatic 
corps. But this was now entirely altered. Napo- 
leon' s ambassadors were no longer viewed as a pass- 
ing evil, and many an envoy of the smaller courts 
already sheltered himself under their wings ; while 
the ministers of the great Powers behaved to them 
with such an overstrained politeness and suspicious 
friendliness, as I never saw at any other time. This 
ought, one might think, to have been peculiarly the 
case with the ambassador of Austria, whose position 
was the most threatening ; but never did I see such 
an example of a brilliant address covering the pro- 
foundest policy, as in Count Metternich." 

" The ambassador who was the object of all this 
suspicion, and the source of new divisions and cold- 
ness in the diplomatic corps, was, curiously enough, 
a man by nature inclined to peace, and delighting in 
frankness and honesty. M. Laforest was a French- 



HAUGWITZ. 



265 



man in heart and soul; but had not the slightest 
sympathy with Napoleon, and was irritated beyond 
measure at any attempt to ascribe the whole success 
of the French army to him. At bottom he felt much 
like his predecessor Bournonville, who, with military 
frankness or imprudence, repeatedly told the Queen 
of Prussia that he carefully preserved his cross of 
St. Louis ! But in spite of Laforest's frankness and 
sincerity, he was still regarded as the spy of a hated 
Government, the organ of hated demands; every 
little advantage which he gave was eagerly seized; 
and of course this re-acted upon him, and his re- 
ports, both of the court of Berlin and the diplomatic 
body, certainly did not contribute to put Napoleon 
in good humour. The conferences between him and 
Haugwitz, the then minister of foreign affairs, must 
have been curious. Each sought to circumvent and 
mystify the other ; and as the Prussian was as great 
a master of the art of spinning out smooth phrases, 
as the Frenchman was of solemn diplomatic decla- 
mation, and as France and Prussia were then trying 
not to understand each other, it is probable that these 
two statesmen often parted without being able to give 
their sovereigns any intelligible account of what had 
passed between them. 

" Haugwitz might be taken as a sort of represent a- 

N 



266 



HAUGWITZ. 



tive of the distractions of the time in which he lived, 
and of the struggle between the world which had 
been, and that which was to be. Alternately assuming 
the wildest debaucheries of the regency, and the most 
homely domestic life of Germany ; driving into Italy 
with a coach-load of mistresses, and then sitting for 
months by the side of his knitting wife ; he might be 
regarded as combining, in his own person, the social 
state which was in its last convulsive throes, and that 
which was to be born of ruin and suffering. Indued 
with talents which had had no proper training ; too 
impatient or too indolent for science, he plunged 
into religious enthusiasm, magic, secret societies, in- 
trigue, ambition and sensuality, with all the desperate 
energy of ennui. Haugwitz had no political system ; 
he had only one decided project, which was, to keep 
the French out of Northern Germany ; — as if there 
was any corner of Germany secure against French in- 
vasion, if all parts did not unite in repelling it ! But 
he acted in contempt of his own principle, when he 
disregarded the pressing entreaties of Hanover for 
protection, and allowed that country to be occupied 
by the republican armies. This blunder was only less 
fatal or less disgraceful than the one by which it was 
succeeded, — the occupation of the Hanoverian terri- 
tory. From that moment, Haugwitz's administration 



COUNT HARDENBERG. 



267 



plunged the country into difficulties^ from which no- 
thing but a war with France, and all its train of dis- 
asters, could extricate it. 

" The Queen, who was from the first eager for war**, 
never could endure Haugwitz, and always believed him 
to be a traitor. Probably had Hardenberg then had 
the direction of affairs, the Prussian army would have 
taken the field earlier, and the battle of Austerlitz 
might perhaps have been prevented." 

In the foregoing pages we saw the debut of Count 
Hardenberg on the political stage on which he was 
destined to play so conspicuous and successful a part. 
He was at this time the idol of the people of Berlin, 
who serenaded him, expressly " because he had been 
for war." He had just been accused by the 'Moniteur' 
of being " not insensible to English gold," and had 
retired from office. 

We have already seen that Napoleon, determined 
to put an end to the King's vacillations, had com- 
pelled Prussia to take possession of Hanover, as the 
only means of effectually embroiling her with England, 

* "We must defer to another occasion what we have to say re- 
specting this remarkable woman. "With respect to her political in- 
clinations, and her want of prudent reserve in the expression of 
them, there is as little doubt as of her enchanting and heroic quali- 
ties ; but the testimony is very conflicting as to the degree to which 
she influenced, or sought to influence, the Xing. 

N 2 



268 



OCCUPATION OF HANOVER. 



and binding her to himself. The King indeed, still 
irresolute, had changed the word " possession " into 
"temporary occupation and administration;" so that 
while, on the one hand, Count Minister quitted the 
country with a bitter protest, on the other, Napoleon 
was incensed at the change, made Haugwitz wait five 
days at Paris for an audience, and then dismissed him, 
saying harshly, " The treaty is good for nothing now ; 
we must begin all over again." He threatened war 
in case of disobedience, and the King had no alter- 
native but to comply. England was incensed, as was 
to be expected, at the seizure of Hanover. George Til. 
published a declaration of war, in which he expressed 
his regret that "Prussia's ancient spirit of honour 
and bravery was utterly extinct," and he declared, that 
" never, on no terms, would he cede a single village 
of his German dominions." The animosity against 
Prussia, long intense in the South of Germany, from 
this time became equally so in the North. We 
find traces of this feeling in all the memoirs of the 
time. Chamisso, who was with the Prussian army of 
occupation in Hanover, writes to Varnhagen, when 
they evacuated it : — " I have not yet told you the 
story of my host, the miller of Wicherhausen. He had 
been forced to harness his horses before ours, and 
drive us into the Westphalian territory ; the sturdy 



CONDUCT OF PRUSSIA. 



269 



fellow flogged them with all his might, calling out, 
i Pull then ! pull as hard as ever you can ! — you are 
dragging the Prussians out of the country'/ " 

Yet, while Prussia had thus alienated her natural 
allies, she had by no means succeeded in inspiring 
Napoleon with confidence. He began to see that he 
might lose his prey after all ; he saw the reluctance 
of the King, and he knew the bitter hatred of the 
people. He threw out a new lure, — a confederation of 
the Powers of Northern Germany, with the King of 
Prussia at their head, and with the title of Emperor 
of Northern Germany. " We too shall have our con- 
federation," writes Haugwitz from Paris. But the end 
of all these tempting promises was, that Napoleon, 
without even consulting the King, offered to restore 
Hanover to England. Indignity could go no further. 
It was impossible that anybody in Prussia could now 
deceive himself as to the real position of the coun- 
try. But she had no right to complain ; there was in 
reality enough to justify Napoleon's distrust. 

At length, on the 6th October, the war so clamo- 
rously demanded from the hesitating and foreboding 
King was declared ; on the 8th, the first engagement 
took place ; on the 10th, the hero of the war party, 
Prince Louis Ferdinand, fell at the battle of Saal- 
feld; on the 14th, the King received Napoleon's 



270 



THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK. 



celebrated letter, reproaching him with making ™ an 
impolitic war without the shadow of a pretext." This 
was on the battle-field of Auerstadt. 

Here fell a Prince, the least tragical incident of 
whose life was its tragical end. Always striving for 
the good and improvement of his people, and always 
thwarted and disappointed ; called to a command for 
which his own military training rendered him unfit, 
and which the character of his troops rendered hope- 
less, the Duke of Brunswick' s name was infamized by 
being attached to a Manifesto which he did not write, 
and against which he vainly protested. In 1806, at 
seventy years of age, he quitted his country, and all 
his schemes for its improvement, and undertook the 
command of the Prussian army solely in the hope 
of preventing the war he was believed to have insti- 
gated"^. He clearly saw the storm which impended 
over Germany; he tried to avert it, but he was its 
first victim. Like his great master and model, Fre- 
deric, he was a devoted admirer of everything French, 
and from French hands he received his death. He 

* " The Duke of Brunswick had accepted the command in order to 
avert the war. I can affirm this with perfect certainty, since I have 
heard it from his own hps more than once. He was fully aware of 
the weaknesses of the Prussian army, and the incompetence of its 
officers. ' And with such men,' he exclaimed, £ we are to make war, 
— war with Napoleon ! No, the greatest service I can render the 
King, is to preserve peace.' " — Von Miiffling, Aus meinem Lehen. 



UNIVERSITY OF HALLE. 



271 



was not even permitted to die in his beloved land. 
Frightfully wounded, he expired at Ottensen, near 
Altona, on the 10th November. 

As our business is not with battle-fields, we hasten 
from the bloody and fatal plain of Auerstadt to the 
contemplation of one of the most faithful and instruc- 
tive pictures we have ever met with, of the effects 
of war on the calm and sacred regions of domestic 
and social life. We shall see how they fare, trampled 
under the brutal feet of an invading army. 

The amiable and excellent Professor Steffens, to 
whose autobiography we are indebted for these details, 
had been recently appointed to a chair in the Uni- 
versity of Halle. He was living there with his young 
wife, in the peaceful cultivation of science, and in the 
enjoyment of the society of a small circle of friends 
and fellow-labourers ; the most distinguished of whom 
was the learned and eloquent Schleiermacher, and his 
sister, afterwards the wife of the patriot poet, Arndt. 

In 1805, Steffens had become acquainted with se- 
veral officers of high rank ; and their character and 
conduct had already awakened his distrust. 

" They were among those/' he says, " who after- 
wards, panic-stricken by the war, betrayed the most 
disgraceful and disastrous spirit ; but even then, I 
must confess that their language alarmed me. It 



272 



SCENES AT HALLE. 



was not prompted by that healthy enthusiasm which 
springs from the fresh and copious fountain of the 
heart ; it was narrow arrogance, and a kind of super- 
stition which attached miraculous powers to obsolete 
and rusty military forms. A courage like that of the 
English before the battle of Agincourt, as described 
by Shakspeare, would not have been blind to the im- 
pending dangers. But not one of these men seemed 
to have a suspicion of the tremendous strength of 
the brave army, which, having overturned all the ex- 
isting theory and practice of war, flushed with vic- 
tory, and sharing in the vehement excitement of a 
whole people, now threatened us with annihilation*. 
The ghost of the Seven Years' War, they fancied, 
would strike terror into the enemy. The Prussian 
soldier, a slavish hireling, enjoyed no consideration 
among the people, had no national interest, and was 
only kept to his duty by the fear of punishment. 
" The army," he adds, " was regarded rather as the 
enemy than the defender of the citizens. It was 

* Muffling saw the French army in Ansbach, and was immediately 
sensible of the inevitable doom of Prussia. " All the infantry officers, 
with the knapsack on their back, up to the commanders of battalions 
and adjutants, — and each of our battalions must have fifty led horses. 
General Exichel was a friend of mine : I sent him a memorial on this 
subject ; his reply was, ' My friend, a Prussian nobleman does not 
go on foot !' " — Von Muffling, Aus meinem Leben. 1851. 



SCENES AT HALLE. 



273 



impossible for them to see without irritation the 
constant assumption, that honour was the exclusive 
property of the military class. " 

The moment that was to justify his misgivings now 
arrived : — " The troops collected in the neighbour- 
hood marched out; the rumours of the approach of 
the enemy grew stronger, and it became certain that 
the field of battle would be at no great distance. An 
anxious silence reigned through the city ; the Duke 
of Wiirtemberg marched into Halle, and from that 
moment the inhabitants felt that they w T ere involved 
in the fearful struggle. It is a singular and awful 
feeling to be obliged to surrender oneself, passive 
and without an effort, into the hands of a foreign 
power. We were still protected, indeed, by our own 
army ; but we ourselves, inactive, had only to await 
the destiny in which that might involve us. Tran- 
quillity and order were destroyed. Men and women 
wandered about the streets in a state of anxious ex- 
citement ; for it was evident, from the position of the 
hostile troops, that a great battle was at hand. At 
length a vague rumour, and then the certainty, of 
the unfortunate battle of Saalfeld, and the death of 
Prince Louis, arrived. His rashness seemed like the 
effect of despair, and this despair infected us all. 

" The unfortunate 14th of October drew near. An 

n 3 



274 



SCENES AT HALLE. 



unquiet crowd filled the streets. The news of a great 
defeat was heralded by the report of a great victory. 
The people exulted; the general joy even infected my 
friends. This lasted a whole day, during which one 
French prisoner was brought into the city. He was 
the first enemy we had seen, and his appearance ex- 
cited an immense ferment among the people, who 
were with difficulty restrained from falling upon him. 
It seemed as if we had gained a great advantage. On 
the evening of the 15th, I ascertained that the battle 
of Auerstadt was lost, and concluded that the Halle 
reserve would be attacked." 

On the morning of the 16th Steffens heard firing, 
and looking from his garden, which commanded a view 
in that direction, saw that the troops were engaged. 

" Very early in the morning came Schleiermacher 
and his sister to be witnesses of the fearful sight. 
They were joined by several professors and others. 
To unskilled eyes, all appeared undecided ; and so 
wonderfully blinded by the good news, so firmly 
trusting in the invincible character of a Prussian 
army, were most of them, that they saw in this at- 
tack of the French a victory. 6 The poor French! 1 
said one of my colleagues; c I could find in my heart 
to pity them ; they will soon be cut to pieces before 
our eyes/ " 



WAR IN A CITY. 



275 



But this illusion did not last. The enemy was 
soon seen to advance, and scattered Prussians fled 
into the town. 

" My dwelling/' continues Steffens, " in a distant 
unfrequented part of the town, was exposed to danger. 
We determined to take our infant, and seek refuge 
in Schleiermacher's house. Schleiermacher and his 
sister, and my wife, went first ; I followed, by the 
side of the maid who carried the child. The danger 
was pressing. We had to hurry down the long Ul- 
rich Strasse. Shots were fired in the streets, other- 
wise utterly deserted. The houses were all closed ; 
only here and there was seen a workman hastily 
tearing down some tempting sign. The nurse was 
herself a mother ; she wished to go to her child, but 
trembled, and could hardly walk. I threw her cloak 
over my shoulders, took the child from her, wrapped 
it up, and hurried on. On arriving at the market- 
place, we saw our danger, — the retreat of the reserve 
corps lay through the city, and we had to cross the 
whole tumultuous body at right angles. How w r e got 
through I know not. In such moments, conscious- 
ness is changed into a blind but powerful instinct of 
self-preservation. The enemy was pouring into the 
streets; a volley was fired in the direction of our 
flight; the bullets whistled about my ears. We were 



276 



A CONQUERED CITY. 



but a few steps from the place of shelter, but our 
retreat might any moment be cut off. At length we 
reached the house; the street was silent and empty; 
the closed door was hastily opened, and locked again ; 
— for the moment we were saved." 

The tranquillity of the little party was not, however, 
of long duration. Three French soldiers soon broke 
in and plundered the house. 

" It already became evident that the Prussian 
power was annihilated, that the city and university 
were absolutely in the power of the enemy, and that 
the whole existence and prosperity of those connected 
with the latter were overthrown." 

On the 19th, Bernadotte published a proclamation, 
promising that the funds of the university should re- 
main untouched, and the students unmolested ; that 
it was the intention of his Sovereign to protect the 
university of Halle. How these promises were ful- 
filled, we shall see anon. The minds of the inhabitants 
were, as may be imagined, far from tranquillized by 
them. 

"At length Napoleon came. We knew that he was 
peculiarly embittered against Prussia. Halle was the 
first Prussian city he had entered, and he remained 
here some days. I was still with my family in 
Schleiermacher's house. An employe of the French 



NAPOLEON IN HALLE. 



277 



commissariat was quartered in it, and of course took 
the best rooms ; so that Schleiermacher and his 
sister, and his friend Gass, as well as I, with my wife 
and child, were put to great shifts. None of us un- 
dressed for some time, none had a regular bed ; we 
snatched a few hours' sleep, when we were exhausted 
and overwearied. Bonaparte remained three days in 
Halle." 

The result of his stay was as follows : — 
" German students were never celebrated for po- 
lished manners. It seems that some of them had 
thronged, like boys, to see the conqueror and his 
showy suite ride through the streets, and had made 
no obeisance. A student to whom Napoleon had 
spoken, when called on to answer in a foreign language, 
in the embarrassment of the moment, had called him 
' Monsieur/ Such were the causes which led to the 
dissolution of the university of Halle. Napoleon 
chose to believe the students in a dangerous plot 
against him ; but the spirit which afterwards exhibited 
itself in so formidable and heroic a manner among the 
students of Germany, had as yet no existence. "With 
the ignorance he so constantly betrayed of other 
countries, he imagined that the students lived in col- 
leges, under supervision; and scolded because they 
were not shut up. He dissolved the university, and 



278 DISSOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSITY. 

ordered the students instantly to quit the town, and 
go home to their parents"^. 

"The next day, towards morning, during an. un- 
quiet sleep, we heard a stir in the house, a running 
up and down stairs, a loud talking in the court, the 
stamping of horses in the stables. When we rose, the 
town was empty ; the troops had marched out, the 
students having been driven out in the course of the 
former day. We, their teachers, remained behind in 
the deserted, forlorn city ; our occupation was gone, 
our destiny all uncertain. The Council of the Pro- 
fessors met, and we now found that the funds of the 
university had been seized. A letter from Berthier 
had arrived from Dessau, in which he informed us of 
the Emperor's displeasure. Men of letters, he said, 
should not trouble themselves about politics; their 
only business was to cultivate and diffuse science (the 
old song!). The professors of Halle had mistaken 
their vocation, and therefore the Emperor had closed 
the university. The whole corps of teachers was thus 
left without an occupation, and the greater part of 
them condemned to poverty and want. The whole 
assembly sat in helpless consternation." 

* The re-establishment of the university of Halle, in 1808, was 
due to the intercessions of that accomplished scholar and critic, 
Baron von Rumour. 



CONDITION OF THE PROFESSORS. 279 

Tlie feeble and craven spirit which had been en- 
gendered in all classes, by the causes we have endea- 
voured to trace, now showed itself, to the disappoint- 
ment and disgust of Steffens. It was proposed by- 
some of the professors that they should endeavour to 
clear themselves in the eyes of the conqueror from 
any charge of disloyalty to him. The most abject apo- 
logies were accordingly made; and made, as might 
have been foreseen, in vain. There were, however, 
among the men of letters some of a very different 
character. 

" The newly-built church of the university, in 
which Schleiermacher preached, was converted by 
the French into a magazine for forage. Our salaries 
were due on the 1st of November, and that of the 
past months was all spent. The fees for my lectures 
were however due to me. On collecting these, I had 
about eighty louis-d'or in my hands. After paying 
all claims on me, I had just ten dollars left, and 
Schleiermacher not more. It was impossible to get 
immediate help from our distant friends ; we were cut 
off from them by the enemy 's troops. 

" We determined to throw the little sum at our 
disposal into a common fund, and to form one house- 
hold. Schleiermacher removed into my small, con- 
fined dwelling. My wife, with her child and Schleier- 



280 



SURRENDER OF MAGDEBURG. 



macher's sister, slept in one very small room, which 
opened into a larger, while I and my friend slept in 
a similar room, and each pursued his studies in a 
common room. In one corner of this room Schleier- 
macher wrote his essay on the First Epistle of Paul 
to Timothy. We lived in great indigence, saw few 
people, scarcely ever left the house, and when money 
fell short, I sold my little plate. 

" But though we lived so poorly, our minds were 
not subdued. It was our fixed persuasion that from 
this time the fate of our country lay in the firm and 
constant spirit of every one of her sons. That 
strengthened and elevated us ; and, spite of our po- 
verty, we assembled the friends and the young men 
who had the courage not to leave the town, around 
our humble tea-table. Luckily we had just laid in a 
stock of tea and sugar when the storm broke upon 
us. These evenings we shall certainly never forget. 
At first our minds were occupied with the fearful 
and wretched events of the day, especially the prompt 
and unintelligible surrender of Magdeburg"^." 



* Shortly after, three opulent and eminent inhabitants of Halle 
were carried off to France as hostages. One of them, Professor 
Memeyer, has left memoirs containing an account of his residence 
there. 



GOING OUT TO BATTLE. 



281 



To that new scene of defeat and dishonour, as de- 
scribed by the brilliant and graphic pen of I miner - 
mann ; we must now transport our readers. Immer- 
mann was a native of Magdeburg. His grandfather 
had served under Frederic the Great, whom, to the 
day of his death, he called "The King;" and the 
little boy had been nurtured in the prevailing belief 
that the arms of Prussia were unconquerable. His 
description of the state of the public mind in his boy- 
hood would be, as he says, incredible, were it not sup- 
ported by ample testimony. 

The day of preparation for resisting the terrible 
foe had now arrived, — and what a preparation ! 

" The city was soon the scene of a continued pas- 
sage of troops. Regiments of horse and foot, am- 
munition, baggage waggons, and pontoons, which par- 
ticularly struck us boys, marched for weeks in at the 
Briick, and out at the Sudenburger Thor. An army 
in movement had then very different appendages 
from what it has now. These imprinted themselves 
on our childish imaginations. The packhorses carry- 
ing the tents, with their intricate mass of linen and 
cordage, above which balanced the long poles, were 
obliged to go in single and interminable file. Then, 
still more strange, the red- striped kitchen- waggons of 
the generals and colonels, with great hen-coops hang- 



282 



RETURNING FROM RATTLE. 



ing on both sides, from which were heard the cack- 
ling and screaming and gobbling of all sorts of live 
poultry, destined to secure to these heroes the accus- 
tomed pleasures of the table. This precaution asto- 
nished us children; and one of us naively asked, 
whether there were no chickens in the villages on 
the way? The light and gay Bosniacs and Towar- 
skys formed a splendid contrast to this ponderous 
camp equipage." 

The fearful 18th of October at length came, to wake 
the Magdeburgers from their dreams of security. 
The dreadful truth was preceded, as at Halle, by the 
report of a brilliant victory. At length it came, bit 
by bit ; and the wildest joy was succeeded by doubt, 
then by anxiety, fear, and, lastly, by the mortal cer- 
tainty of despair. An expression of Immermann's 
father, during the period of suspense, is characteristic 
of the prevalent feeling. r My God!' exclaimed he, 
with a deep sigh, ' Frederic's soldiers will surely do 
their duty V + 

And now came the spectacle of the shameful and 
disorderly retreat of these very soldiers ! 

C€ As the confused rout came in by the same gate 
through which they had marched forth, the people 
gathered in knots, looking on with alarmed and still 
incredulous wonder. c These are the first fugitives/ 



RETURNING FROM BATTLE. 



283 



I heard people say : c they are never in order ; have 
patience, the regular regiments will soon come/ But 
noon came, — afternoon came, — evening drew on, and 
the pell-mell had not ceased; the disorderly mob 
which had been an army still filled the streets. At 
length came some troops in marching order, as ex- 
ceptions to the miserable rule ; covered were now the 
banners which had floated so proudly in the breeze. 
Most of them marched in in silence, — once only the 
music sounded, loud and clear, like the laughter of 
despair. It was the trumpeters of a cuirassier regi- 
ment ; — their regiment was not behind them, — they 
were quite alone, and blew the Dessauer march, just 
as if all were in the best possible order. They looked 
well too, and were mounted on high-fed horses. 
Indeed, generally speaking, the men did not look 
jaded, nor hungry, nor worn; and the contrast be- 
tween their personal good condition with the general 
destruction, exhibited in the strongest light the depth 
of the calamity. In the evening everybody knew that 
a Prussian army no longer existed. A helpless grief 
sat on men's faces. But even then, the indescribable 
spirit which characterized that period was not extin- 
guished. I heard a man say to his neighbour, c That 
may be as it will ; things have gone badly, no doubt, 
but we have lost with honour ; for I heard just now 



284 



GERMAN LOYALTY. 



that the Prussians did not once lose the step through 
the whole battle/ " 

If the German character does not appear under 
very favourable colours in the foregoing description, 
there is an incident which shows it under one of its 
most noble and touching aspects. That which had 
been for centuries the great conservative principle of 
Germany, — attachment to the hereditary Chief and 
Father of the land, — never shone forth more brightly. 
In the midst of the wreck of his army and his for- 
tunes, the King, — the half-dethroned King, — arrived, 
accompanied by one aide-de-camp. 

" At the sight of him, the crowd broke out into 
a loud cheer. This sound was so unexpected by him, 
and in his present circumstances, so affecting, that 
he lost all self-command. He put his handkerchief to 
his eyes, and walked on for some way with his face 
covered. He then withdrew it, and went to his 
lodging, bowing gravely to his people, who, moved 
by the tears of their chief, received his greetings in 
the deepest and most respectful silence." 

We have been told (such things are oftener re- 
lated than printed in Austria) that thependant to this 
affecting picture was exhibited at Vienna after the 
battle of Austerlitz. The Emperor Francis, a fugi- 
tive, mounted on a sorry jade, attended by one aide- 



THE LANDESVATER. 



285 



de-camp, defeated and almost dethroned, was about 
to make his inglorious entry into his capital : he 
was met by the citizens, who had of their own accord 
dragged out the state- carriage, and now seated him 
in it, and drew him, as if in triumph, to his palace. 
u Why, what would you have done if your Emperor 
had been victorious?" asked a stranger. " Oh ! then 
we should not have needed to do anything," was the 
answer. 

It may be said, and justly, that Francis was not 
worthy of such sublime and delicate generosity. We 
reply, No man can be worthy of it, except one who 
will never excite it, — a Washington, for example; 
and that this is not the question. The question is, 
whether nations will fare better under similar circum- 
stances, who have no attachment to an Ideal, which 
is permanent precisely because it has no material 
existence. Such an ideal is (to the old German sen- 
timent) the " Landesherr" or "Landesvater" ; the 
hereditary sovereign, invested with that ancient pa- 
triarchal sanctity which, though capable of being 
heightened or diminished by the qualities of the 
possessor for the time being, is inalienable from the 
office. An attachment to institutions, formed after 
calm deliberation and on a full estimate of their 
value, is, no doubt, a far higher, manlier, and safer 



286 



CAPITULATION OF HAMELN. 



thing, than this attachment to a sovereign individual 
or house. We prefer the faith of Pym and Hamp- 
den, to the devotion of Ormonde and the Cavaliers. 
But until the reason of the masses can be appealed 
to with some chance of success, the tutelary force of 
habit and sentiment can ill be dispensed with. Of 
this the world has had proof enough. 

The panic and rout throughout the Prussian do- 
minions were now complete and universal. We have 
a tragical picture of the state of things from the 
hand of a poet, — a man who, from the peculiar cir- 
cumstances of his birth and education, tastes and 
character, saw the war (if we may be allowed to say 
so) from both sides. Chamisso was born a French- 
man, but had early adopted Germany, and more 
especially Prussia, as his country, with more than the 
passion of a native. It is as a German poet that he 
is best known, and his romance of 'Peter Schlemihl' 
is characterized by a thoroughly German spirit. At 
the beginning of the war he served in the Prussian 
army, but after the peace between France and Prus- 
sia, he thought himself bound to return to his native 
country, and to enter the French army. We extract 
from a letter written by him to M. de Varnhagen, 
dated November 22nd, 1806, describing the disastrous 
and disgraceful capitulation of Hameln. 



DESPERATION OF THE SOLDIERS. 287 

" Oh, my friend !" exclaims he, "not for the sal- 
vation of my soul would I be one of those criminals 
(the capitulating generals). Anxious and embar- 
rassed they stood before us, and gave us the shame- 
ful answer, that the enemy was already in Berlin, 
the King^s power annihilated, that Magdeburg and 
Custrin, and Spandau and Stettin, and God knows 
what towns, had opened their gates. Why should 
they not do the same ? — it must come to that ; and, 
— in a word, it was already done." 

The indignation of the troops, their burning desire 
to wipe off the stain, was not to be contained. Khaden, 
a boy fresh from the academy of engineers, swore 
that he would stab the men who had signed the ca- 
pitulation. "Had we found a leader," continues 
Chamisso, "we should have kissed his feet." He pro- 
posed to draw lots who should command them ; to 
swear obedience to the new commander ; to cry, 
" Long live the King ! " and to rush on the enemy. 
Those who chose might remain behind. While he 
was speaking, the drums beat the alarm. 

" The soldiers had learned that they were betrayed, 
and, in rage and desperation, broke out into the 
wildest excesses. They forced open the magazines, 
staved brandy-casks, got drunk, and plundered shops. 
In the midst of these scenes of disgrace and horror, 



288 



POPULAR PEELING AT BERLIN. 



one of Roman honour occurred. In Haak's regi- 
ment there were two brothers of the name of War- 
nava, sons of a soldier, and themselves soldiers. They 
had vainly protested against the surrender of the 
fortress. Finding that there remained no other way 
of avoiding dishonour, each placed his musket on 
the other's breast, fired, and fell into each other's 
arms ; in this strict embrace they died"*." 

Chamisso describes the dismal morning after this 
fearful night, — the German arms thrown into the 
mud by their despairing possessors, — the old Bran- 
denburgers weeping as they took leave of their officers, 
who stood stupefied, wishing that some stray bullet 
would hit them, — other soldiers stupidly drunk. In 
the midst of this desolation, the Dutch troops marched 
in, jeering at the Prussians for not resisting their 
small numbers. "Even with the sacrifice of all he 
was worth," says he, " would many a German citizen 
have wiped out this dishonour to Germany." 

He concludes : — "I shall serve no more now. 
Perhaps, my friend, other times, may arise when I 
may gladly grasp my sword again. It may be good 
that things have taken the turn we see. I reckon not 

* Varnhagen says that when old Marshal von Mollendorf, the last 
of Frederic's generals, came to the neighbourhood of Halle, just be- 
fore their shameful surrender, the people were in the highest spirits 
and eager to fight. 



BERLIN. 



289 



with the gods. Where a new building is to be erected, 
the ground must first be cleared and levelled. But, 
my beloved friend, may you rather lie on the battle- 
field, where one sleeps well, than witness what I have 
witnessed ! Farewell \" 

At Berlin, as at Halle and Magdeburg, people were 
deluded with rumours of victory, only to be plunged 
into deeper despair. 

" The battle of Jena/' says Woltmann, " was first 
announced to the capital by shouts of ■ Soult is 
beaten ! 3 The fearful truth soon followed. Among 
the various emotions which this overthrow of the 
glory and the pride of Prussia excited, I observed 
numerous proofs of joy among the citizens and civil 
classes, that the arrogance of the soldiery had re- 
ceived so signal and ignominious a chastisement ! 
Even then, the persuasion forced itself upon my 
mind, that there was no salvation for Prussia till its 
army should be completely merged in the mass of 
the people ; and should rise out of it to a new life, 
and in an altered form." 

The disaster was officially announced to the capital 
by that ever-memorable proclamation put forth by 
the governor, beginning, "Tranquillity is now the 
first duty of every citizen." We have heard eye-wit- 
nesses describe the effect it produced on all who had 

o 



290 



NAPOLEON AT BERLIN. 



any feeling for the honour of their country. Some hid 
their faces, and appeared overwhelmed with shame ; 
some shed tears of rage ; some seemed stupefied with 
despair. Yet the mass of the people had at that time 
so little idea of what awaited them under the French 
domination, that when, on the 27th October, Napo- 
leon entered Berlin, u he seemed," says Droysen, " to 
be regarded rather with curiosity than with sorrow." 

" The Berliners," continues Woltmann, " had reck- 
oned on help from Russia with such confidence, that 
when the first French chasseurs rode through the 
Potsdam gate, the people, seeing the green uniforms, 
exclaimed, 'The Russians are come! the Russians 
are come ! 9 

" The easy careless air of the French troops formed 
a singular contrast with the stiff pedantry of the 
Prussian. The French were fuller than usual of va- 
nity and insolence. They ascribed their victory at 
J ena solely to their own valour, and the high reputa- 
tion of their enemy made them regard this victory as 
something gigantic. Very few of the officers had the 
candour and good sense to see that the main cause 
of their success was to be found in the antiquated 
organization of the Prussian army. 

" Napoleon made his entry into Berlin on a lovely 
day of October, to the sound of those same bells 



BEFORE THE DAWN. 



291 



which had so often announced the wonderful and 
saving victories of Frederic the Great, — so often 
awakened the national pride of Prussia. He entered 
with unequalled military pomp. But this did not 
make the impression on the Berliners he expected ; 
there was something ostentatious and tawdry in it, 
which is not to the taste of Germans. They felt 
as if they were looking at a troop of horse-riders. 
Bonaparte was evidently much impressed by the me- 
mory of Frederic. It was clear that he thought the 
people of Berlin would compare him to their hero. 
In this he was completely mistaken. The Berliners 
are little given to admiration ; and if it is extorted 
from them, they pay it to the dead, or to those whom 
they regard as their own property. They had ex- 
hausted it on Frederic ; and many now turned their 
whole practised talent for ridicule against Napoleon. 
Most of them however hated him with gloomy ear- 
nestness." 

Here we must pause. We are arrived at the crisis 
at which the work of regeneration is about to com- 
mence. A long and dreary night is before us ; but 
in that night the German nation will recruit itself, 
and arise like a strong man refreshed. We have still 
to witness great sufferings ; tragical destinies of the 
high and the lovely ; we have still to see in some of 

o 2 



292 



SUFFERING AND HOPE. 



its multiform details what it is to be a conquered 
people. Six years of such sights as these are before 
us, — painted by those who lived, suffered, and acted 
in the midst of them. 

" The truth/' Bays Arndt, " is beyond all power of 
description. We look back as upon a black dream, 
and are amazed at what we have seen and suffered, 
and can hardly believe it. Years must elapse before 
it can be described, nor will our grandchildren then 
believe what was the state of Germany in the years 
1808, 9, 10, and 11. The base and the bad openly 
triumphed and domineered j the indolent and the 
cowardly served with hopeless and thoughtless obse- 
quiousness ; many of the good despaired ; only a few 
noble spirits still hoped." 

But the hope of these few noble spirits, far different 
from the presumptuous and inane confidence which is 
the forerunner of destruction, contained within it the 
germ of deliverance. It rested not only on their own 
conscious energy and determination, but on experience 
of human things, and observation of the ways of Pro- 
vidence. They saw that their oppressor was sowing 
the dragon's teeth, and they knew that the harvest 
of armed men would not long be wanting. They saw 
that the chastisements of Heaven were doing their 
work in the hearts of the German people, and they 



SUFFERING AND HOPE. 



293 



placed a just reliance on the result. This is admirably- 
expressed by Steffens. 

" The more all prospect of external help vanished, 
the more threatening the aspect of things around us, 
the stronger became our internal confidence, our firm 
conviction that the Holy and the Good, the germs 
of which were springing up in Germany, could not 
be annihilated by the rude trampling of a victorious 
soldiery. In this view, I often ventured to express 
what was the guiding principle of all my thoughts so 
long as the French occupied the land, even in those 
days of despair. I maintained that the battle of Jena 
was the first victory over Napoleon"*, for that it had 
destroyed the weaknesses which were his best allies, 
and had awakened a spirit which must in the end 
arise and conquer. The certainty that I should wit- 
ness his fall never left me," 

* The converse of Borne' s equally true paradox, — that the battle 
of J ena was lost by Frederic the Great* 



294 



GERMANY, FROM THE BATTLE OF JENA 
TO THE EXPULSION OF THE FRENCH* 

The foregoing pages, desultory and imperfect as 
they are, may perhaps have enabled our readers to 
form some notion of the social appearances presented 
by Germany during the half-century preceding her 
subjugation. These may have been found to afford 
some solution of the problem, how it was that a great 
people, full of eminent and solid qualities, could ex- 
hibit such moral and political weakness ; how a people 

* Lebensbilder aus dem Befreiungslcriege. Jena, 1841. 
Keinrich David Stuve, Bur germeister der Stadt Osnabruck. J ena, 
1827. 

H. SteefenS. Was ich erlebte. Vol. VII. Breslau, 1843. 

JLuise, Xdnigin von Breussen. Berlin, 1814. 

Muffling-. Aus meinem Leben. Berlin, 1851. 

Friedrich Perthes' Leben. Hamburg und GJ-otha, 1848. 

Frinnerungen aus den Kriegszeiten von 1806-1813. Von Fbied- 
exch YON Mullee. Braunschweig, 1851. 

Leben von Georg Wilhelm Kessler. Leipzig, 1853. 

Das Leben des Freiherrn von Stein. Von Gr. H. Peetz. Ber- 
lin, 1851. 



FALL OF GERMANY. 



295 



so indisputably bravo, could fall so ignominiously 
before an invader. We have seen that the German 
people had never recovered from the torpor, indiffer- 
ence, and exhaustion which had succeeded the Thirty 
Years' War ; and that the character and events of the 
Seven Years' War had not been of a nature to work 
any national regeneration. They had only served to 
inspire one member of the Germanic body with hatred 
or contempt for another, and with a confidence which 
subsequent events showed to be as baseless as it was 
arrogant and presumptuous. 

Germany as a nation had ceased to exist ; and the 
component parts into which it had resolved itself, so 
far from contributing to each other's strength, were 
the main cause of their common weakness* We have 
seen the inevitable result. Austria and Prussia, 
which united might have opposed a firm front to 
their common foe, have fallen separately and ignobly 
under his attacks. Austria, stripped of her ancient 
authority, deserted and betrayed, was left to fight 
single-handed the battle of Germany, hostile or in- 
different. With the great Frederic, had expired the 
force and energy of Prussia. They were too much 
the mere reflection of his own matchless force and 
energy, not to cease with himself. Nor was this all. 
A long course of successful warfare is inevitably fol- 



296 



CAUSES OP DOWNFALL. 



lowed by two diseases, — lassitude and presumption, 
— each dangerous, and, when united, mortal. These 
Frederic had bequeathed to Prussia. 

The lesser States, released from all allegiance and 
deprived of all protection, have tendered their willing 
homage to the conqueror, or have reluctantly bent 
before the power they could not withstand. We have 
seen the dissolution of all the bonds that bound the 
Princes of Germany to their Subjects, as well as to 
each other. Nowhere was there any one of the ele- 
ments of national strength ; — union, concert, a just 
sense of the impending danger, a deep determination 
to resist it, above all, mutual confidence, — nowhere. 
Although, as we have remarked, new views of society 
and of government were not only circulated, but re- 
ceived with passionate admiration, throughout Ger- 
many, few of her princes attempted either to test the 
value of these ideas by discussion, or to appease the 
craving for change by reasonable and timely reforms. 
Those great expedients for cultivating at once the 
reason and the attachment of a people were not un- 
derstood, or were regarded as derogatory and perilous 
to authority. 

To the English public of that day, ignorant of 
the internal state of Germany, the rapidity and com- 
pleteness with which the subjugation of Germany 



CAUSES OF REVIVAL* 



297 



was accomplished appeared almost miraculous ; and 
for the five or six years after the battle of Jena, the 
French arms, and their all-conquering leader, inspired 
an almost superstitious belief that they were invin- 
cible. Napoleon was regarded as a heaven-appointed 
scourge ; — by some, incredible as it may seem, as a 
heaven- appointed deliverer, — whom it was vain and 
hopeless to resist ! 

Even the slight and imperfect sketch of Germany 
which we have been able to throw together will, we 
think, have sufficed to reduce the miracle to its true 
proportions ; and though nothing could be more ab- 
surd than to attempt to detract from the mighty 
power and genius to which she succumbed, it is ma- 
nifest that her most fatal enemies were in her own 
bosom* 

We have now to see how lassitude was goaded into 
vigour, presumption chastened into wise and provident 
determination^ and disunion converted into strenuous 
concert. 

Considering the state into which she had fallen, 
and the total absence of political knowledge or poli- 
tical activity in the people, (without which great and 
permanent reforms are impossible,) it is probable that 
the re-awakening and re-union of Germany could 
never have been brought about in tranquil times, or 

o 3 



298 



A CONQUERED PEOPLE* 



by any measures which her own sovereigns could have 
adopted. In that discipline which God sends to those 
whom he calls fc out of sloth and selfishness and sen- 
suality to a consciousness of the capacities and the 
duties of maix, — in humiliation and chastisement, in 
shame and sorrow, in pain and ruin, — Germany once 
more felt her great heart beat, and became a living 
body, instinct with a quickening spirit. 

What this discipline was, how bitter the humilia- 
tion, how intolerable the yoke, we have now to see 
from the testimony of witnesses and sufferers. We 
can only take here and there a scene out of the tra- 
gedy. We disclaim all attempt at the arrangement 
and continuity of history, which would exceed our 
powers still more than the space at our command. 
The historical outline of those times is known to 
most readers, and is to be found in books within the 
reach of all. The pictures we have brought together 
are, we believe, drawn from less popular or accessible 
sources. 

For the present, we must follow in the bloody and 
dreary track of the conqueror; and see by what 
means he wore out the patience and roused the re- 
sistance of a prostrate foe. We shall see what is the 
condition of a people living under the yoke of a fo- 
reign oppressor, and shall contrast it with the new life 



THE DELIVERERS, 



299 



breathed into that people by the spirit and the hope 
of freedom ; the joy of self-sacrifice, the elevation 
above sordid and selfish interests, the heroic devotion 
to country, giving grandeur, nobility and strength 
even to the lowly and the feeble. 

We shall often shift our scene, and shall endeavour 
to carry our readers with us from the proud capital 
to the antique town or the obscure hamlet, — all lying 
under the black shadow of foreign domination, Yet 
even in the depth of this dark night the stars that 
precede the dawn are beginning to appear. In Prus- 
sia, in the midst of the petrified remains of the Gene- 
rals of the Seven Years' War, we already see names 
that are hereafter to be crowned with the immortal 
glory of deliverers of their country. Scharnhorst, 
and Bliicher, and Knesebeck, and Muffling, and 
Gneisenau, and many more, are already there, — most 
of them young and obscure, but all conscious of the 
causes of Prussia's weakness and fall ; all of them 
determined to set their lives on her regeneration. 

" When/' says the Austrian Hormayr, " the total 
subjugation of Germany to Bonaparte became mani- 
fest, these men were for a moment in a stupor; but 
they soon recovered themselves, and by no means 
abandoned the cause for which they were resolved to 
live or die. They were compelled to withdraw from 



300 



RELIANCE ON ENGLAND. 



the public service of their country, but in their retire- 
ment they kept alive and in full vigour the alliance 
with each other and with England. Such men were 
Count Minister in England, Hardenberg, Scharnhorst, 
Gneisenau, Stein (then in Russia), and others. Their 
worst enemies were not the French, but the valets of 
the French, — men who despaired of their country, 
and denounced faithful patriots as absurd fanatics. n 

We find on all sides gleams of the same unquench- 
able hope, the same reliance on England. 

" The situation of Prussia," says Steffens, " was 
a strange one. Hanover was invested by Prussian 
troops; the Hanoverians hated the Prussians even 
more than the French; England was expected to 
declare war ; Russia was exasperated ; Austria, aban- 
doned by Prussia in her perilous combat, was embit- 
tered. The State seemed inevitably sold to France ; 
yet even in this moment the power was in motion 
which was destined to combat and to conquer France. 
Everything that was noble or eminent in Prussia 
suddenly appeared intimately bound to England, at 
the very moment when that country was about to 
declare war upon us." 

And, at a later period, " If not only Prussia, but 
Austria, must take arms for Napoleon, it was clear 
that the subjugation was complete, and every hope 



NAPOLEON AT WEIMAR. 



301 



of resistance extinct. And yet that hope I could not 
relinquish. . . . Then, in the darkest midnight hour 
of hopeless, sinking Germany, arose a tacit, secret 
alliance of the noblest spirits, — the alliance between 
Austria and Prussia, — both looking to a common 
union with the true Germanic England," 



The first peaceful town which felt the horrors of 
invasion was Weimar, the most interesting of Ger- 
man cities, — still radiant with the glory of Herder 
and Schiller and Goethe and Wieland, — the bright 
circle of stars that clustered around sovereigns worthy 
to be their centre. The Duke, long an officer in the 
Prussian service, learned the disastrous result of the 
Battle of Jena in the night of the 15th of October, 
at Arnstadt. On the afternoon of the same day Na- 
poleon entered Weimar. Already, the night before, 
a part of the French troops had taken possession of 
the town, and had begun to plunder. The pillage 
went on during the whole of the next day and night, 
so that even the palace was almost stripped of the ne- 
cessaries of life. In this extremity, with fire raging in 
a street near, the reigning Duchess received the con- 
queror with that serene dignity and dauntless courage 



302 



DUCHESS LOUISA OF WEIMAR. 



of which he always retained a profound and respect- 
ful impression. Surrounded by every circumstance 
of terror, she stood unmoved at the top of the palace- 
stairs to receive Napoleon, pleaded with him for her 
people, vindicated the conduct of her husband, against 
whom he was greatly incensed, and did not desist 
till she had prevailed. His speech to General Rapp, 
on leaving her, has been often quoted. It was not 
however till lately that we had it on the authority 
of an unquestioned witness, Friedrich von Miiller, 
late Chancellor of the Grand Duchy, the friend and 
executor of Goethe. To him Rapp repeated Napo- 
leon' s remarkable words : " Voila une femme a la- 
quelle meme nos deux cents canons n'ont pu faire 
peur." The respect which he ever afterwards showed 
for this heroic lady, would have furnished one of the 
rare traits of generosity in his character, had it not 
been disfigured by conduct towards her husband, 
which, to so noble a woman as the Duchess Louisa, 
converted his homage into an insult. He never ceased 
to taunt the Duke with his obligations to his wife, 
and to repeat that if he had spared him, it was solely 
out of consideration for her. 

said Talleyrand to Chancellor von Muller, 
" the Emperor has not put an end to the political 
existence of Weimar, it is solely on account of the 



CONVERSATION WITH NAPOLEON. 



303 



high respect with which the Duchess inspired him by 
her firm and intrepid conduct, and of his regard for 
her sister the Markgrafin of Baden. If his Majesty 
is disposed to interest himself in the fate of Weimar, 
it is due to these considerations, and to no others in 
the world. The Emperor has repeatedly declared this 
to me/* 

This was afterwards repeated by Napoleon to Von 
Miiller himself, in a remarkable conversation. " Does 
your Duke know," said he, " that I might justly depose 
him ? If I have not yet done so, it is to be ascribed 
solely to my regard for the Duchess. . . . You, 
Sir, try to excuse your Duke, — that is your duty ; 
but it is mine to depose princes who act against me, 
without further delay. He who cannot bring into 
the field more than a few hundred men, must re- 
main quiet. This is just the moment for him to lose 
his states in the twinkling of an eye. You see what 
I have done with the Duke of Brunswick. I will 
drive those Guelfs back into the marshes of Italy, 
out of which they sprang. I will trample them un- 
derfoot and destroy them, as I do this hat [here he 
threw his hat, in a rage, on the ground], so that no 
memory of them may remain in Germany. And I 
have a great mind to do the same with your Prince. 

" By heaven ! those who have not at least a hun- 



304 



GOETHE AND HIS MASTER. 



dred thousand men, and a good number of cannon, 
should not venture to make war upon me ! These 
Prussians have as much as that, and more, and what 
has it availed them ? I have scattered them like chaff 
before the wind ; I have crushed them, and they will 
rise no more. 

" Had your Duke been wise, he would have been 
quiet, and have joined the Confederation of the Rhine ; 
I would have received him into it, and even with spe- 
cial advantages, and he would now be in a very dif- 
ferent position." 

Yet the conduct of the Duke, against whom this 
burst of unseemly rage was directed, had been as 
worthy of respect and honour as that of his august 
wife. His crime was, that after having been twenty 
years in the service of Prussia, he did not choose to 
desert her in the moment of danger. 

The most striking and complete narrative of what 
occurred at Weimar is that contained in Falk's book 
on Goethe, which formed the nucleus for a number 
of interesting but desultory matters concerning that 
illustrious man, translated and published in 1833. 
Those who are acquainted with Falk will remember 
Goethe's charming and most unusual outbreak at the 
treatment of his Duke, concluding, " I will turn stroll- 
ing ballad-singer, and put our misfortunes into verse. 



CHANCELLOR VON MULLER. 



305 



... I will sing the dishonour of Germany, and the 
children shall learn the song of our shame till they 
are men ; and thus shall they sing my master upon 
his throne, and yours (to the French) off again." 

How characteristic of his artist nature ! Even 
while the tears were rolling down his cheeks, the ca- 
lamities of his Country and his Master suggested to 
him — Pictures and Songs ! He saw " the women and 
children in the villages casting down their eyes and 
weeping, as they said to one another, That is old 
Goethe and the former Duke of Weimar, whom the 
French drove from his throne, because he was so true 
to his friends in misfortune." He heard the " Song 
of our shame." 

The most important contribution to the history of 
these days furnished by Muller consists in the con- 
versations with Napoleon, in which he took part as 
interlocutor or as listener. We have given one spe- 
cimen of these, and shall probably revert to them 
anon. The whole narrative of his labours to avert 
from his unfortunate country some portion of the 
misery which pressed upon it, is in the highest de- 
gree interesting and instructive. In this we may 
read what was the condition of the people in nearly 
every part of Germany, what the exactions of the 
Conqueror, the insolence of his agents (with some 



806 



LE PARTERRE DES ROIS. 



honourable exceptions), the abject servility of many 
German Princes and of their official servants. Any 
Prince who, like the noble-hearted Duke of Saxe- 
Weimar, did not hasten to prostrate himself with 
every mark of devotedness at Napoleon's feet, was re- 
garded by him with bitter resentment, and the crime 
was visited on his unfortunate subjects. The con- 
flict in the generous and upright mind of the Duke, 
between love and pity for his people, and abhor- 
rence of servile homage to a man he not only hated 
but despised, is the more touching, that it is not de- 
liberately expressed, but breaks out in all his words 
and actions. 



In September, 1808, took place that celebrated 
meeting of the Emperors of Russia and France, 
with all the lesser rulers who formed their cortege, 
which may be regarded as the culminating point of 
Napoleon's prosperity and splendour. The town, 
usually so dull, was crowded with Sovereigns, and 
with their attendant statesmen and warriors ; and all 
these constellations seemed to revolve around the 
Conqueror as the sun of the European system. 

" The interior of the house/' says Miiller, speak- 
ing of the theatre where the whole dramatic corps 



ERFURT, 1808. 



307 



of Paris, Talma at their head, represented the 
finest tragedies of the French stage, before the cele- 
brated " Parterre des Rois," " presented a most im- 
posing appearance. Exactly in the front of the par- 
quet sat the two Emperors, in two arm-chairs, in 
familiar conversation; a little in their rear, the 
Kings, and then the reigning Princes and hereditary 
Princes. Nothing was seen in the whole pit but 
uniforms, stars and orders. The lower boxes were 
filled with staff-officers and the most distinguished 
persons of the imperial bureaux. The upper fronts 
with Princesses, and at their sides foreign ladies. A 
strong guard of grenadiers of the imperial guard was 
posted at the entrance. On the arrival of either 
Emperor the drum beat thrice, on that of any King, 
twice. On one occasion, the sentinel, deceived by 
the outside of the King of Wiirtemberg^s carriage, 
ordered the triple salute to be given ; on which the 
officer in command cried out, in an angry tone^ 
" Taisez-vous, — ce n'est qu'un roi !" 

It seemed as if Erfurt contained the urn of des- 
tiny, out of which the two mightiest potentates in 
the world were to draw the lots of peoples and of 
states. Yet even now the awful form of the approach- 
ing Nemesis cast its dark shadow before. The re- 
verses of the French arms in Portugal and Spain 



308 



STATE OF GERMANY. 



were known. Even on his way from Mainz to Er- 
furt, Napoleon had received despatches from Spain, 
which threw him into such a rage that he tore them 
in pieces. Russia appeared daily to feel more and 
more the evils resulting from the blockade of her 
ports, the destruction of her trade, and the reprisals 
exercised by England. Austria, irritated against both 
France and Russia, and silently preparing for war, 
could only see with distrust the alliance which seemed 
to be drawn closer than ever between the North and 
the South, especially since the presence of the Em- 
peror of Austria at their meeting was expressly de- 
clined. Prussia, almost entirely garrisoned by French 
troops, and crushed under the burden of the fearful 
contributions extorted from her, placed her last hope 
of alleviation in the intercession of the Emperor 
Alexander. Almost all the Princes of Germany had 
grievances or wishes to express, and were more or less 
uncertain of their future fate. A mysterious curtain 
hid the great political drama which was here to be 
performed. In spite of brilliant appearances, in spite 
of agreeable episodes, it was impossible not to feel 
that the air was sultry and tempest-charged. 

In the beginning of October arrived Prince "William 
of Prussia, the King's brother. He was most cour- 
teously received. One by one followed many Prus- 



SHADOWS BEFORE. 



309 



sian officers and public servants : " they came with 
hearts bleeding at the wretched state of their country, 
and with the deepest hate of its oppressor." 

On this occasion Napoleon gave a friendly recep- 
tion to the Duke of Weimar. Miiller remarked this 
with satisfaction to Talleyrand, on which that faithful 
and ingenuous servant replied, " Nous disons de belles 
choses a ceux que nous n'aimons pas, mais a ceux que 
nous aimons nous disons, moquez-vous de tout cela." 
Thus then, if we look below the glittering surface, 
what was the real condition of the Conqueror of the 
World ? Surrounded by perfidious servants and du- 
bious allies; by self-interested followers and by in- 
jured, insulted, and vengeance-breathing, though si- 
lent, enemies ; the whole dense mass of subjects and 
slaves, — kings and their peoples, chiefs and their ar- 
mies, — by whom he was surrounded, could not shut 
out from his eyes the menacing form of Retribution 
which had arisen, and was already advancing from 
the far West. Spain down- trodden and occupied, 
England isolated, confined to her small territory and 
her wide ocean home, — these were sufficient to thwart 
his will and to embitter his triumphs. And when, 
a few months later, (in January, 1809,) he wrote to 
the Grand-Duke of Baden : — " Mon frere, — Ayant 
battu et detruit les armees espagnoles, et battu Tar- 



310 



NORTH AND SOUTH. 



mee anglaise," etc., whomsoever he might deceive, he 
did not deceive himself. 

The prompt resistance which the French armies 
encountered in Spain, the spontaneous efforts of the 
peasantry, the rise of guerilla bands all over the coun- 
try, created a great sensation in Germany ; and while 
these appearances were hailed by all with admira- 
tion and hope, they were felt by others to afford a 
painful and humiliating contrast with the nearly total 
subjugation and the long endurance of Germany. 
But (not to recur here to the heroic exceptions) 
there are some considerations suggested by Immer- 
mann, which must be taken into account, in estima- 
ting the patriotism and courage of the two nations, 
and the different modes in which these were dis- 
played. " The incapacity of the French nation ge- 
nerally, and of their leader in particular, to under- 
stand a national character unlike their own, or a 
movement of the human mind different from what 
they were conscious of in themselves, was the sal- 
vation of Prussia. Bonaparte was utterly unprepared 
for the mass of unconquerable resistance, the force 
of long-suppressed indignation, which at length burst 
forth in that country. Not only are the people of the 
South more excitable, more easily roused to sudden 
and rash action, but life is subject to few of the ne- 



NORTH AND SOUTH. 



311 



cessities and conditions which subjugate it in the 
North. There, everything necessary to the existence 
of man must be wrung from the earth by incessant 
toil, and preserved with incessant vigilance ; and any 
abrupt change of these habits is followed, not, as in 
more genial lands, by temporary privation, but by 
absolute destruction. A guerilla warfare is impos- 
sible in a flat country. An inhabitant of the North 
cannot desert his house and take to the woods; 
what he subsists on is the produce of his own fore- 
thought and labour, and can only be obtained under 
the shelter of his roof, and in the security of civil 
society. When once subdued therefore, any sudden 
revolt against superior force becomes almost impos- 
sible, and the conquered are compelled to accept life 
on the hard terms offered by the conquerors. They 
are not disposed to risk all in experiments, in which 
success is so doubtful and failure is annihilation. 
They bide their time, and watch in silence for some 
event which affords them a chance of deliverance. A 
people lightly excited to revolt, after a few unsuccess- 
ful struggles, sinks into utter and hopeless subjection. 
But the suppressed indignation which watches over 
the altar and the hearth with secret religion, prepares 
itself day and night for the decisive struggle; and, 
in the midst of an apparently exclusive devotion to 



312 



MISCALCULATIONS. 



domestic life and domestic cares, deliberately braces 
itself up for the sacrifice of all that it holds dear 
and valuable." 

Napoleon was unaccustomed to this silent and 
secret resistance, and hence was utterly deceived 
with regard to the state of Prussia. He had not the 
least idea of what was going on among a people ap- 
parently submissive. The worser part of the press 
was timid, venal and obsequious; the better was 
silent, or spoke in a language he did not under- 
stand. He had indeed a dim perception that the 
literature of Germany was his foe, and he hated it 
accordingly. "The German savans" said he, "mix 
politics with grammar and mathematics:" but he 
despised them. He entirely miscalculated the effect 
of the cruelty and violence by which he hoped to 
strike terror — such as the murder of Palm, the Niirn- 
berg bookseller. He had no idea of the dangerous 
depth and bitterness of resentment which this act 
of wanton atrocity called forth. The French, accus- 
tomed to violent appeals to popular passions, could 
not understand the language which spoke to the heart 
of Germany. Steffens says, " My work on the Idea 
of a University is perfectly intelligible to every Ger- 
man. Yet M. Villers, who knew his countrymen, wrote 
to me, 'You would be a lost man, if you had not 



SCHOLARS AND POETS. 



313 



clothed your thoughts in a language which is San- 
scrit to a Frenchman/ Frenchmen thought that 
such reveries could have no political effect ; yet this 
little book was, during the years of our oppression, 
a favourite handbook of German students, and had 
no inconsiderable influence on them." 

Nobly indeed did the philosophers and scholars 
and poets of Germany act their part, as leaders of 
the minds of men, especially of youth. Who has 
not heard of the potent appeal made by Fichte ; of 
the Tyrtsean songs of Korner and Arndt; of the 
labours of Wilhelm von Humboldt, JNTiebuhr, and 
Schleiermacher, to improve the intellectual training, 
and raise the intellectual character, of Prussia ? The 
first call to arms in Breslau was uttered by Professor 
Steffens, from his chair in the university. Scharn- 
horst, the great soldier and administrator, was so 
much of a scholar, that the poor old Duke of Bruns- 
wick, as Muffling tells us, was never at his ease 
in his presence, and said he felt as if he was talking 
before a professor. In the train of these great names 
follow a host of others, less illustrious, but all deserv- 
ing of honour and gratitude. 

Among them, one of the earliest and the most 
zealous, was Ernst Moritz Arndt. His spirited war- 
songs contributed to stir up the torpid energies and 

p 



314 



ARNDT. 



emasculated spirit of the German people. It is the 
fashion with the present race of young Germans, die 
Freien, as they call themselves, to undervalue the exer- 
tions and deride the sentiments of the men of that 
period. This proves nothing but incapacity for the 
feelings of reverence and gratitude, and the presump- 
tion common to ignorant and untried men*^. 

We by no means go along with Arndt, or those 
whose opinions he represents, in his exaggerated and 
exclusive patriotism, or in his undiscriminating de- 
preciation of the French. But at the time at which 
he wrote and acted, there was one thing needful, and 
that was, to get rid of the foreign yoke. There are 
moments in which the most intense and inveterate 
one-sidedness is a virtue. The question then was not, 
to appreciate the French, but to drive them out of 
the country; and this could never have been done 
without an appeal to all the passions which they had 

* " All these things," says a writer, speaking of the enthusiastic 
love and confidence inspired by Archduke Charles at that time, " are 
so easily forgotten in an age which, taking its stand on what has 
been gained, has scarcely any feeling or understanding for the suf- 
ferings and sacrifices of those days. It is therefore right to utter a 
timely word over the open grave of this German hero, in order that 
the conceit of the present generation may not look down too arro- 
gantly on that which the youth of these days are apt to regard as 
nearly obsolete and useless." 

It is well that those who toil and bleed for men forget their in- 
gratitude. 



GOETHE. 



315 



set in array against themselves. What therefore is 
now, in time of peace,, a defect, was then a merit ; — 
the only merit applicable to oppressed, degraded, en- 
feebled Germany. It was the moment for loud cries 
and hard knocks, — not for calm examination or equi- 
table judgements. 

We are compelled to confess that, in the list of 
noble spirits who rekindled the flame of freedom and 
the sentiment of manly self-respect in the German 
nation, the most illustrious for intellectual gifts is 
wanting. Captivated by his genius, struck with pro- 
found admiration and respect for his sagacity, his 
good sense, his vast acquirements, we struggled long 
against the conviction of a moral impotence which 
it seemed impossible to reconcile with such stupen- 
dous intellectual endowments, and such unwearied 
industry in the culture of science and art. We sym- 
pathized moreover in his disgust at the ravings of 
certain modern world-improvers ; and we acquiesced 
in the sentence which his clear judgement pronounced 
upon empty enthusiasm for large and high-sounding 
words, to which not a single distinct or useful idea 
is attached. Nor, perhaps, should we think him un- 
pardonable if he had, after the struggle was over, 
viewed with some contempt, or with some coolness, 
the emphase of patriotic exultation. 

p 2 



316 



GOETHE. 



But all this is not enough for his justification. 
While his country lay trampled clown and bleeding 
at every pore, while her very existence was at stake, 
it was monstrous to turn away from her death-strug- 
gles^ as if they had been mere ordinary political con- 
tests, distant wars, or party heats. That he should 
think he could do more good by immersing himself 
in that work for which Heaven had so peculiarly en- 
dowed him, than by scattering his interest over the 
daily events of any ordinary time, we can well ima- 
gine. But the stake was too great, the crisis too 
awful, the cause too holy. Whoever had a great 
intelligence, owed it to his country; whoever had a 
great heart, could not withhold it from her service 
and her wrongs. 

Somebody calls W. von Humboldt "ein Staats- 
mann von periklesischer Hoheit," and not without 
reason; for he combined in an unequalled degree 
practical sense and business-like activity with thought, 
taste, and learning. Yet we confess ourselves top 
English to relish the complacency with which he 
speaks of having met Goethe in the dreadful year 
1809, " in full vigour, and bearing the Elective Affi- 
nities in his heart." ["Er trug eben die Wahlver- 
wandschaften in seinem Herzen."] 

This indifference, or this toleration, was not how- 



GOETHE. 



317 



ever shared by the grave and earnest men, of whom 
Stein and Niebuhr may be regarded as the highest 
types. Perthes, who passed the terrible years 1805-6 
in constant intercourse with Niebuhr, expresses the 
feeling common to them all. Most of his letters of 
that period are lost, and those subsequent to the bat- 
tle of Jena betray the constraint which the French 
espionage laid on written intercourse. But enough 
remains to show his bitter disgust at the indifference 
with which men who were the pride of the country, 
regarded the boundless sufferings of Germany, and 
the insolence of her tormentors. He was filled with 
indignation when Goethe's ' Eugenie' appeared, 
" Shame, burning shame/' writes he, " ought to tor - 
ture our hearts at the dismemberment of our Fa- 
therland. But what are our noblest doing ? Instead 
of arming themselves by fostering this shame, and 
gathering up all their courage and indignation, they 
seek to escape from these feelings, and make works 
of art." 

There was, above all, one point in Goethe's conduct 
which no favourable theory will reach ; — the degree to 
which he was blinded and captivated by the attentions 
paid him by Napoleon. He had witnessed all that 
the invader had inflicted on Weimar ; he had seen his 
meanness and violence and discourtesy to the Duke, 



318 



WIELAND. 



his own friend and benefactor ; he must have known 
the alternate exhibition of theatrical tricks and coarse 
outbreaks which disgusted and repelled men whose 
vanity w r as less susceptible, and whose moral sense 
held their imaginations in greater subjection. Yet he 
never spoke of Napoleon without admiration, and 
even sympathy. 

Very curious is the contrast in this respect between 
Goethe and Wieland, whose sympathies were supposed 
to be quite French, and who was called the German 
Voltaire. Napoleon took great pains to dazzle and 
cajole the aged poet, but he entirely failed. Wieland 
never for a moment fell under the influence of his 
flattery, or was blinded by his imposture; and had 
the most distinct perception of the hollow and tran- 
sitory nature of the whole pageant passing before his 
eyes'*. 

We remarked in a former passage that, in consi- 
dering the state of a country so obnoxious to intel- 
lectual influences as Germany, the character of its 
literature must always be taken largely into account. 
We spoke of the sentimental and enervating litera- 
ture of the beginning of this century, as at once a 
symptom and a cause of the ruin of German energy 

* The conversation between the Emperor and Wieland, recorded 
by Yon Miiller, who heard it, is extremely curious. 



INFLUENCE OF LITERATURE. 



319 



and independence. But susceptibility to the influence 
of letters is, if nobly directed, one of the most power- 
ful means of purifying and elevating the character 
of a nation; and accordingly, when adversity and 
suffering had put to silence the feeble waitings and 
fantastic or voluptuous dreams of the sentimental- 
ists, voices arose from every part of Germany, deep, 
solemn, and soul* stirring, addressed to whatever was 
manly and true in the heart of the people. These 
addresses bore indeed the impress of the national cha- 
racter ; they were full of enthusiasm and of poetry, 
but of the enthusiasm and the poetry of men, intent on 
manly objects ; and though very far from being always 
utterances of political wisdom, they were, as trumpet- 
calls, admirable. Above all, we find in the most 
illustrious men in Prussia a profound conviction that 
the sole hope of their country lay in its moral and 
intellectual regeneration. 

We are glad to have to revert to this subject, not 
only because we have now to show literature under a 
dignified and beneficent aspect, but because enough, 
in our opinion, can never be said of its moral and 
political significancy; or of the moral and political 
importance it has acquired, since the wide diffusion 
of the power of reading (we decline to call it edu- 
cation). There is no right or privilege of a citi- 



320 LITERATURE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

zen which ought to be used with a more cautious 
and conscientious regard to all consequences, than 
that of disseminating ideas; there is none which is 
used with greater recklessness, or with a more utter 
sacrifice of public interests to those of personal va- 
nity, amusement, or gain. 

It is very instructive to follow the fortunes of a 
country in its literature, and to see in the straws and 
feathers that have floated down the stream of time, 
indications of what we know of the Past, and of what 
we surmise of the Future. Who, for example, can 
dwell attentively on the polished and graceful litera- 
ture of France in the seventeenth, and early part of 
the eighteenth, century, without seeing in its intensely 
and exclusively aristocratic character the double dan- 
ger which that character announced to France ? In 
every line of the exquisite trifling with which the 
grand monde of France amused itself, and still de- 
lights the world, we see the sentiments of an aristo- 
cracy which has entirely abdicated its political cha- 
racter, and divested itself of its political duties. In 
doing so, it has also disencumbered itself of all solici- 
tude about the condition of the mass of the people, 
You may read volume after volume of the most po- 
pular and charming Memoirs, Letters, etc., without 
meeting with an allusion to the great social questions, 



ARISTOCRATIC LITERATURE. 321 

which should pre-oceupy the minds of those who pre- 
tend to be the leaders of a nation, and which, as our 
daily experience shows us, tinge even the most frivo- 
lous conversation in a healthful society. There are 
parties — or rather factions; — but where is there a 
trace of a People's Party ? We are not now speaking 
of works professedly on political subjects, but of the 
disclosures made by light literature of ordinary trains 
of thought and objects of interest. Poetry, the drama, 
nay even religion itself, wear the livery and speak the 
language of the Court. We hope not to be told any- 
thing about the solicitude of the higher classes for 
" les Pauvres," — the recipients of the alms which 
were to pave the way of the donors to Heaven. To 
diminish the inclination and the necessity for receiv- 
ing such benevolences, is the object of every true 
friend of the people ; and we utterly refuse to accept 
an act so little tending to the permanent advantage 
of its object as almsgiving, as any proof of solicitude 
for the People's w r elfare. 

To us, we confess, this entire indifference of the 
aristocracy of France to great popular interests and 
great social questions, is a more terrible symptom 
than the violences or even crimes of party, where 
party has any serious or noble objects. The actual 
literature of France is not more significant of past 

? 3 



322 



INTELLECTUAL INFLUENCES. 



convulsions, than was the refined and people-ignoring 
literature of the seventeenth century, prophetic of 
those that were to come. We do not now speak of 
it as exhibiting proofs of individual depravity; but 
as one entire proof of an immense political defect, we 
might say, political crime, on the part of the higher 
classes. 

We shall see what was the value attached to intel- 
lectual influences by the great men who raised Prus- 
sia from her deep degradation ; and what were the 
means suggested by them, and adopted by the King, 
for infusing new life into a body which seemed 
doomed to almost instant death. We are not un- 
mindful of the immense importance of the military 
organization given by Scharnhorst, nor of the extent 
to which such soldiers as Bliicher contributed to her 
deliverance. But these are subjects which we wil- 
lingly leave to those more competent to handle them, 
and pass on to those measures which addressed them- 
selves to the minds of the country. 

In contemplating the passage of history before us, 
we are powerfully struck by the connection between 
freedom of thought and vigour of character ; between 
manly confidence in a people on the part of a govern- 
ment, and energetic co-operation with its rulers on 
that of a people. The governments of Germany 



INTELLECTUAL INFLUENCES. 



323 



which had prohibited or discouraged the manly exer- 
cise of the reason, free discussion, and the cultivation 
of earnest and serious tastes, had found their merited 
chastisement in the feeble and flaccid state of the 
public mind, and the want of vigorous popular sup- 
port. The Government which made the first success- 
ful appeal to its subjects for strenuous support, not 
only inherited some of the spirit bequeathed by the 
great Frederic, but had preceded that appeal by a 
series of acts proving a profound respect for the 
human intellect, and a deep anxiety for its culture. 

Konigsberg, the refuge of the banished Court, had 
imbibed from Kant somewhat of his own free and phi- 
losophical spirit, and the King was soon surrounded by 
remarkable men. Philosophy and freedom of thought, 
which had found shelter under the Prussian Monar- 
chy, now repaid their debt. They made its cause their 
own. During all the days of its peril this alliance was 
intimate and cordial ; till mischievous doctrines and 
fantastic aspirations on the one hand, and timid re- 
ticences on the other, brought about an alienation 
which is honourable and safe for neither party ; and 
which all persons who care for the history and cul- 
ture of the human mind, and thence for Prussia, must 
see with regret. That all the fruits of the tree of 
knowledge are neither sweet nor salutary, is true 



324 



NATIONAL EDUCATION, 



enough; but of such mixed elements is the moral 
diet of human beings composed : we must take it as 
it is, or sink into mental atrophy. 

It was the terrible year 1808, when the Treaty of 
Tilsit had stripped the King of half his dominions ; 
when Berlin was garrisoned by French troops; when 
(says the biographer of T\ r . von Humboldt) " such was 
the intolerable oppression and extortion practised by 
Napoleon, that it seemed doubtful whether the nation 
would subsist a week ; when, to systematic draining, 
and the most exasperating insolence in peaceful quar- 
ters, was added the prohibition laid on Prussia to have 
an army exceeding 40,000 men ; when the Court, 
amidst these sufferings and indignities, had retired 
to Konigsberg, and the remnants of the kingdom, 
hemmed in by Magdeburg, Stralsund and Danzig, 
Saxony and Poland, lay in hopeless and helpless 
inaction;" it was such a year, that gave birth to the 
system of National Education, which has since at- 
tracted so much notice and admiration. Whatever 
be its merits or demerits, considered as the work of a 
Government struggling for life, it cannot be regarded 
without surprise and respect. Pestalozzi's method was 
introduced, and in 1809 Zeller, a pupil of his, was in- 
vited to Berlin. His methods, like everything new, 
encountered opposition. The King, who had just re- 



UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN. 



325 



turned to his capital, determined to judge for himself. 
He went to the schoolroom unexpectedly one morn- 
ing at eight o ; clock, and staid, till twelve, examining 
minutely into every detail. The same evening he pub- 
licly declared himself in its favour. 

In the still darker days of 1809 the Gymnasia were 
greatly improved, as were also the two Prussian uni~ 
versities of Frankfurt on the Oder and Halle. 

But the most wonderful proof of the internal vigour 
of a nation bowed to the earth under a foreign yoke, 
and drained, as it appeared, to inanition by foreign 
exactions^ was the establishment of the University of 
Berlin. As early as 1807, the project of founding a 
University in the capital was suggested, and through 
all the misery of the subsequent years was never aban- 
doned. Fichte, Wolff, Schleiermacher, and W. von 
Humboldt, were among its warmest advocates. Stein's 
puritan austerity took alarm at the dangers of a great 
city as an abode of studious youth"*. 

At length Wilhelm von Humboldt was appointed 

# ~No man was more convinced of the supreme importance of moral 
influences than Stein. In a letter to Hardenberg, he speaks of the 
awakening of public spirit as indispensable to the salvation of the 
country ; and adds, " It can only be awakened by the cultivation of 
the religious feelings, and by political institutions fitted to call into 
action all the energies of the nation." Stein expresses great doubts 
of the energy and patriotism of the higher classes, but adds, " The 
clergy will co-operate vigorously." 



326 



UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN. 



to report to the King upon the matter. His Report, 
dated 12th May, 1809, contains the following words : 
" The confidence which Germany felt in the true en- 
lightenment and high culture of Prussia, far from 
being destroyed by the late unfortunate events, is 
greater than ever. People have seen that, in all the 
new institutions founded by the King, these are re- 
cognized as the most important of all advantages. 
They have admired the readiness with which, under 
the greatest difficulties, establishments for learning 
and science have been supported and greatly im- 
proved by his Majesty." 

In pursuance of this Heport, a Cabinets-Order was 
issued on the 16th August, 1809, decreeing the es- 
tablishment of the University, and a grant of 150,000 
dollars yearly for scientific purposes ; 60,000 of which 
were for the support of the University. The King 
gave the palace of Prince Henry for its use. This 
munificence exceeded all expectation. "It was the 
highest example/' says Fichte, " of a practical respect 
for science and thought, ever afforded by a State ; for 
it was given during a period of the direst oppression, 
and under the greatest financial difficulties; and it 
was not a matter of display or of elegance that was 
sought for, but an instrument for giving new health 
and vigour to the nation." 



UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN. 



327 



" On whatever side we regard the establishment of 
the University of Berlin/' says Steffens, "we must con- 
fess it to be one of the most remarkable incidents on 
record. If we compare it with what the Government 
would have done a few years sooner, if called to 
remedy the miserable condition of the University of 
Halle, we shall be astonished. Any suggestion to 
put it on a suitable footing, would then have met a 
decided negative. Now, after the Government had 
been overthrown and the country half ruined, a 
part of the richest provinces in the enemy's hands, 
and the whole prospects of the nation most gloomy, 
exertions were made which, a short time before, after 
a ten years' peace, would have been pronounced im- 
possible. Whence arose this mighty change ? From 
the conviction of the part Prussia was called upon to 
perform, and of the necessity of a great intellectual 
and moral reform. It was evident that oppressed 
and humbled country was not to be raised from her 
prostration by physical, but by moral force. Wil- 
helm von Humboldt, Schleiermacher, Niebuhr, and 
Count Dohna, were among the great fosterers of this 
thought." 

The temper of Berlin during the time of its hardest 
oppression was admirable. It was occupied by foreign 
troops, the King on the frontier of Russia, and yet the 
capital was only externally subjugated, a small mino- 



328 



UNIVERSITY OE BERLIN. 



rity only was subdued in spirit. The enemy had taken 
fortresses, the army was beaten and defenceless ; but 
a secret, and to him invisible,, army had constituted 
itself, and daily won silent victories, which he sus- 
pected not. Men like Schleiermacher were mem- 
bers of a league, which had arisen without concert ; 
in all minds reigned the presentiment of a great im- 
pending struggle. Fichte was the first open preacher 
of German freedom. Both he and Schleiermacher 
possessed true popular eloquence. 

The conversion of Berlin into a centre of German 
intelligence was a totally new idea. Hitherto it 
had been regarded as the abode of a spirit, not 
only not national, but thoroughly French. The Aca- 
demy was half French. And this city, contemned by 
the great minds of Germany, occupied by the enemy, 
this half-ruined capital of a half-ruined monarchy, 
was suddenly transformed into the centre of the in- 
tellectual hopes of Germany. 

Steffens adds that he never heard a complaint ut- 
tered about the sums which were, with such exertions, 
brought together for this purpose. Yet it must be 
remembered that they were raised at a time when 
palaces were sold in Berlin for a mere trifle, and 
when Want and privation were felt by all classes to 
an extent of which we can form no idea. 



ASPECT OF BERLIN. 



329 



Before we turn onr eyes from Prussia to other 
parts of prostrate Germany, we must touch upon one 
of the incidents that wrought up the people to a 
pitch of deadly hatred and vengeance. 

During the whole period of the French occupation, 
the aspect of Berlin, as we have repeatedly heard it 
described by those who were then living there, was 
one of sullen and determined reserve. In some other 
parts of Germany, the French officers were not only 
admitted, but welcomed, in society. Women of the 
higher classes went to their balls, danced with them, 
nay, even formed matrimonial (or unmatrimonial) 
connections with them. We have been repeatedly 
assured by persons who had lived through the whole 
of this bitter period, that this was never the case in 
Berlin. There were of course base exceptions ; for ex- 
ample, a regiment of Prussian volunteers was raised, 
and received from the hand of Josephine a flag with 
the inscription, "Premier Regiment de Prusse;" but 
the general tone was one of unvarying coldness and 
irreconcilable aversion. 

The invaders in their turn exhausted every variety 
of insulting behaviour. We have seen and heard the 
answers sent to ladies in whose houses French of- 
ficers were quartered, and who had occasion to ask of 
them some redress or indulgence : they were incre- 



330 



ATTACKS ON THE QUEEN. 



dible. At the time when the contributions levied 
upon Prussia had so impoverished all classes, that 
many families of distinction had not so much as a 
silver spoon left, and with difficulty supplied their 
own most frugal table, nothing was good enough for 
their unwelcome guests ; and men accustomed to the 
coarsest fare affected the most ludicrous fastidious- 
ness. Every conceivable vexation was inflicted upon 
the inhabitants, and, as we have heard it said, the 
ruinous contributions were nothing, compared to the 
daily exactions and minute provocations they endured 
in their own houses. 

This was a great mistake : a conqueror should 
either crush or conciliate. 

A still greater, was the attempt to blacken the re- 
putation of the Queen. The e Telegraph/ a daily 
paper published under Napoleon' s authority and di- 
rection, was mainly employed to insult the absent 
King and Queen, but especially the latter, and to 
lower them in the estimation of their subjects. This 
was an entire miscalculation. Granting all that is 
denied of the Queen's hostility, and interference in 
public affairs, a man of honour does not combat his 
enemy, especially a woman, with discourteous arms ; 
and Napoleon used no other. To have put the 
Queen to death, would have inspired more horror, 



ATTACKS ON THE QUEEN. 



331 



but less disgust, than the series of unseemly jests, 
low calumnies, and odious insinuations, which were 
put forth under his eye. 

By this act he proved to all those who, through- 
out Europe, were anxiously watching for certain indi- 
cations by which to judge his character, that he was 
not a gentleman; (we use this word as sufficiently 
comprehensive, yet sufficiently precise, to convey our 
meaning to English ears) — a character which, in 
Western Europe, not even an Emperor can forfeit 
with impunity; and which once lost, can never be 
regained. Whatever may be the case in countries 
where chivalry never reigned, or in those which have 
been called into existence since its decay, in Europe 
some traditions of it still linger. The character of 
a true gentleman is compounded of the same ele- 
ments as that of its knightly predecessor and Ideal, — 
of bravery, honour, and tenderness to the weak ; only 
it is adapted to the demands of modern and civil life, 
and may be acquired and manifested where no gentle 
blood is, by the better promptings of a gentle spirit. 
These highest graces of civilized life are not un- 
frequently found in the humblest and least courtly 
classes among ourselves. And in no country is, or 
was> this character more generally diffused than in 
France. Would any subject of Louis XIV. have 



332 



ATTACKS ON THE QUEEN. 



dared to imagine his master lampooning and carica- 
turing a woman — a queen — an unhappy woman — a 
fallen queen? It is true, Marie Antoinette had 
shown since then, to what outrages a woman may be 
subjected; but her calumniators were no pretenders 
to imperial dignity and elevation. We cannot doubt 
that this revelation of low and discourteous disposi- 
tions and habits on the part of Napoleon had a great, 
though not very obvious, effect throughout Europe, 
on the minds of persons of honour. 

"The infamous attack on the royal family, espe- 
cially the idolized Queen," says a German writer, 
" now appeared in the c Moniteur/ Never did the 
blindness of revenge suggest a more injudicious step. 
The private life of the King and Queen was per- 
fectly known to their subjects; it was the strong 
point where there were many weak ones ; and the 
attempt to blacken a beautiful and innocent woman, 
a Queen of a sweet and noble nature, whose greatest 
crime was an excessive love of and confidence in her 
country, laid up a store of dreadful retribution for 
its author. Up to that moment, many Germans, 
dazzled by the successes and the talents of the con- 
queror, had imagined him a really great man, — they 
feared, while they hated him. But from the time he 
thus revealed his utter want of magnanimity, the 



QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 



333 



petty spite of which lie was capable, and the base 
and disloyal means lie resorted to, in order to gratify 
it, bis historical grandeur vanished. They saw that 
his was not a soul to uphold, Atlas-like, the destinies 
of Europe." 

We will here anticipate a little, and will follow the 
unhappy Queen to the early close of her stormy life. 
She had, as most of our readers probably know, been 
driven to Konigsberg, w T here she was attacked with 
fever ; and on the nearer approach of the French 
troops to that place, she was placed in her bed in a 
carriage, and conveyed to Memel. In 1807 she 
visited Konigsberg again, while the King was with 
the allied armies. After the fatal battle of Friedland 
she returned to Memel, the only city in his dominions 
in which the unfortunate King could still find a safe 
refuge. On the 28th of June the King joined the 
two Emperors at Tilsit. 

" In the first days of July, 1809," says Count 
Henkel, who was with the King, " Napoleon ex- 
pressed a wish to see the Queen, who was then in 
Memel. In our situation it was impossible to avoid 
compliance, and there was also a faint hope that 
she might succeed in obtaining somewhat more fa- 
vourable terms. On the 6th she arrived in Tilsit. 
I shall never forget that day. The Queen was one 



334 



QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 



of tlie most remarkable women of her day, dazzlingly 
beautiful, dignified, ineffably sweet and amiable, and 
a thorough. Prussian. The assertion that she exer- 
cised an influence over affairs of state is utterly lu- 
dicrous. The King loved her above everything on 
earth ; but he was not the man to allow himself to be 
governed, especially by a woman. It was her greatest 
glory that Napoleon sought every possible means of 
humbling her, for this proved how much he feared her. 
I possess an engraving, made by Napoleon's order, and 
which I bought in Paris in 1810, wherein the Queen 
is represented in the uniform of SchilFs hussars. It 
is incredible that a man of such eminence could de- 
scend to such despicable acts of vengeance"*." 

We abstain from adding Count HenkePs account 
of the captivating Queen, to the many already be- 
fore the public. It is no easy task to write about 
one so transcendently gifted with the qualities that 
most bewilder the judgement; and whose fate inspires 
a sympathy almost as passionate as the admiration 
excited by her various and touching graces. If, as 
is affirmed by some, she had a large share in hasten- 
ing on a war, for which the country (as the King's 

* It was repeatedly asserted by Napoleon and his press that the 
Queen was with the arnry, riding about in the uniform of her regi- 
ment of dragoons. 



QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 



335 



more sober judgement perceived) was so little pre- 
pared, it is undeniable that her influence was fatally 
exercised. Indeed, as our incognito secures us from 
lapidation, we shall venture to confess that we partly 
hold the very perruque and illiberal opinion that 
women are dangerous advisers in political matters. 
It would ill become us, living when and where we do, 
to deny that nature may now and then, in an hour 
of singular prodigality, endow a woman with all the 
qualities that become her sex, and superadd a rec- 
titude of understanding, a steadiness of purpose, and 
firmness of principle that any man might envy. But 
we can never admit that such a woman is more than 
a happy accident. In a being so entirely and ex- 
quisitely w oman as Louisa of Prussia, the affections, 
the imagination, the passions will always be incom- 
parably stronger than the judgement. That all these 
affections, imaginations, passions, are pure, lofty, ge- 
nerous, and good, alters not the case. They will not 
fit her to be a counsellor; though they qualify her 
to be, what she was, — no less sublime in adversity, 
than lovely in the days of her brightest fortunes. The 
two or three letters printed in Countess von Berg's 
little Memoir of her justify all that can be said of 
the elevation and beauty of her mind"*. 

* Countess Berg says, " It does not appear that the Queen ever 



336 



QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 



We were fortunate enough to hear some particulars 
about the Queen from one who saw her in all the 
vicissitudes of her fortune; and who thus described 
her behaviour in one of the most trying moments of 
her life. 

" Such/' said this lady, " was the natural cheer- 
fulness,, the childlike and harmonious temper of the 
Queen's mind, that, even in the midst of the cala- 
mities that broke her heart and shortened her life, 
she could not close her sweet spirit to gladdening 
influences. A drive through an agreeable country in 
a fine day, or some innocent social amusement, never 
failed for the moment to dissipate her sadness. I 
used to be almost displeased to see that she could 
enjoy anything, for I could enjoy nothing ; and what 
were my sorrows to hers? One evening she was 
engaged in some little diversion with her ladies, when 
a courier from Tilsit was announced, with a letter 

talked on public affairs till after the French entered Ansbach in 

1804 From that time she was anxiously occupied with them; and in 

1805 and 1806 her health began to suffer from constant anxiety." 
Countess Berg positively affirms that the Queen only knew of the war 
on her return from Pyrmont, and when it was already determined. 

The little book entitled { Luise, Konigin von Preussen,' which is 
among those at the head of this article, was written by Countess von 
Berg, Grande Maitresse of the Queen's Court ; a lady who is spoken 
of with veneration by all who knew her. It was published, in 1814, 
anonymously, for the benefit of the widows and orphans of those 
who had fallen in the war. 



THE QUEEN AT TILSIT. 



337 



from the King. She took the letter and opened it, 
where she stood. I shall never forget her appearance. 
She seemed to grow taller. c A great sacrifice is re- 
quired of me/ she said ; e I trust I shall have strength 
to perform it. The King wishes me to go to Tilsit, 
and to see the Emperor/ " 

Delicate and mobile creature ! too many such calls 
were made upon the higher and stronger parts of her 
frail nature ; too many such abrupt passages shook 
her gentle frame. As she lies there, in the enchanted 
sleep which the hand of Ranch has given to the 
marble, one is inclined to exclaim, Surely never was 
so sweet a flower torn by so rude a storm ! But the 
magnanimous and dauntless spirit of her race, — that 
spirit which still lives in one pure and gentle and 
sorrowing daughter of Mecklenburg, — was in her to 
the last. She died true to herself, as wife, mother, 
and Queen. 

Much has been written about this meeting at Tilsit; 
but we do not remember to have seen the following 
circumstance, which we give on the same unquestion- 
able authority. When the Queen entered, Napoleon 
looked at her, and the first words he spoke conveyed 
an ironical compliment on her dress. She received it 
with a gentle humility which embarrassed and, for 
the moment, disarmed him. " Yes/' she said, " I 

Q 



338 



THE RETURN TO BERLIN. 



deserve your rebuke. I am indeed too fond of these 
elegancies." 

All these indignities offered to the unfortunate 
Queen are however nothings compared to that implied 
in the words Napoleon uttered to her sister, the Prin- 
cess of Thurn and Taxis : " She had better have come 
alone \" This requires no comment; and we should 
hesitate to believe it on any authority less unquestion- 
able than that of Chancellor von Miiller, to whom 
the Princess repeated it. 

In December, 1809, the King and Queen returned 
to Berlin. We have heard the rapture of that day 
spoken of by those who had shared in it; but we 
shall let Woltmann relate the scene. " Never, in the 
most prosperous days of Frederic William's career, 
had the attachment to the royal house been so fer- 
vent in all classes as now, in their days of humilia- 
tion. The return of the Court to Berlin was hailed 
with a joy which showed that love, as well as am- 
bition, has its triumphs. The depression, the dul- 
ness, which had been visible in every street and pub- 
lic place of Berlin, from the time of the battle of 
Jena, for the first time vanished. On the day of the 
entry of the King and Queen, the joyous air which 
all faces wore, proved in the most decisive manner 
the strong feeling of loyalty of the Prussian people. 



THE RETURN TO BERLIN. 



339 



The Berliners — who are never thoroughly contented 
with anything, always must find faulty and want 
something more than is there — on this occasion 
seemed satisfied, and even delighted; much as they 
had lost, much as they had to irritate and depress 
them. Nor was there anything in the least degree 
senile in their joy ; it was the sentiment of men 
firmly attached to their royal house, but whom ca- 
lamity and change were silently educating for freer 
institutions. 

The common remark was, that misfortune had 
tempered the stiffness and austerity of the King, and 
given sedateness and dignity to the Queen. The 
King was on horseback. His countenance expressed 
neither sorrow at his reverses, nor joy at the delight 
of his people ; but a profound emotion, and a serious- 
ness which seemed compounded of joy and sorrow. 

The Queen was in a splendid carriage, the gift of 
the citizens of Berlin, surrounded by her children. 
Gracious and affectionate as were her salutations to 
to her people, it was easy to see that the natural 
cheerfulness which had formerly won all hearts had 
disappeared. The fine spirits which were among the 
best of the rare gifts she received from nature, broke 
forth occasionally, like a sunbeam amidst clouds. It 
was also remarked how much their conjugal attach- 
es 2 



340 



PRUSSIAN STATESMEN. 



ment had contributed to uphold both of them in the 
time of trial ; and to give them faith in the perma- 
nency of institutions of which they formed a part, 
and which they saw in hope, perpetuated in the per- 
sons of their children. 

But the elevating impression of this affecting re- 
union between King and People did not extend to 
the court and diplomatic circles, where so many pain- 
ful revolutions had taken place. The most eminent 
statesmen — Stein, Hardenberg, and others — were ab- 
sent and unemployed; many names in the brilliant 
crowd recalled only disaster; while others, still ob- 
scure, were tempering their spirits for action and for 
fame in the fire of revenge. The two most striking 
figures were those of Bliicher, whose whole look and 
air were prophetic of his destiny, and Scharnhorst, 
whose pale, delicate face, animated only by thought, 
was seen quietly gliding about. They seemed in un- 
expressed yet conscious concert, pursuing some great 
secret end; and were especial objects of veneration to 
the young men of the army. Among the statesmen 
who returned to Berlin with the King, were many 
who had suddenly risen from subordinate situations ; 
many of them men of ability, and, above all, indefati- 
gable in their efforts to atone for the loss of physical 
force in Prussia by greater mental energy. But Stein, 



PRUSSIAN STATESMEN. 



341 



their real centre and soul, was absent. Napoleon, 
who regarded this high-minded and inflexible patriot 
with hatred and fear, had outlawed him. 

It was astonishing that, with all the keenness and 
sagacity generally attributed to Napoleon, he did not 
appear to have the least suspicion of the new opinions 
and temper which were daily taking wider and deeper 
hold on the Prussian people ; or even of the immense 
extension of her military strength by the organization 
of the Landwehr. He broke out occasionally into ex- 
pressions of anger and contempt against Prussian in- 
trigues, — as if there could be intrigues where a nation 
is in the plot. But he was completely ignorant of the 
dispositions of the people ; and even of the most con- 
spicuous individuals, — such, for example, as Graf von 
der Goltz, Cabinet minister, who mainly contributed 
to divert the attention of the French from important 
points. Goltz used to say that there were indeed in 
Prussia some insignificant worthless persons, who 
could not desist from intrigues and invectives against 
the French ; but that all men of weight were their 
sincere friends, — even General Scharnhorst. Bona- 
parte was so completely deceived in him, that he said 
to the King, " Little Goltz perfectly understands your 
Majesty's interests." 

But the most singular proof of this blindness was 



342 



HARDENBERG AND STEIN. 



an intimation which certainly came immediately from 
Napoleon, that it would be expedient to recall Har- 
denberg from Anspach, where he had distinguished 
himself by his capacity for public business. He had 
previously abused him in the 'Moniteur' as "a trai- 
tor sold to England." He was led into this signal 
blunder by his rapacity. It was found impossible 
to raise the contributions he demanded, and Harden- 
berg^s fame as an administrator tempted him. The 
King and Queen, who had long known Hardenberg's 
mind and heart, joyfully received him as Chancellor 
of State from the hands of their implacable enemy ; 
and the Emperor, in the view and belief that he 
should obtain larger contributions through Harden- 
berg's financial dexterity, placed at the head of Prussia 
perhaps the only man capable of organizing her for 
a successful resistance to his tyranny. Many might 
have been found able to temporize, but hardly one 
with such constancy and invincible faith in the future 
greatness of Prussia. 

Stein would have shown great vigour and deter- 
mination, but he would not have had the patience 
to bide his time ; to curb the burning hatred, and 
hold in check the growing force, of Prussia, till the 
decisive moment; — the immortal merit of liar den- 
berg. How could a man of Stein's iron truth have 



HARDENBERG. 



343 



succeeded for years in utterly deceiving the French 
Government*"? 

By adapting himself to his French masters with 
wonderful discretion on the one side, while on the 
other he held in check the fermenting internal ele- 
ments, Hardenberg saved the country from a pre- 
mature explosion, which would probably have preci- 
pitated her into the abyssf. 

Hardenberg' s recall took place in June 1810. Di- 
vided as opinions are with respect to the character of 
this remarkable man, they seem to be nearly unani- 
mous as to his peculiar fitness for the time and the 
circumstances in which he lived, and for the sort of 
Brutus part he had to play. "At the time/' says 
Hormayr, "when the French police in Vienna was 
most suspicious, vigilant and inexorable, and when 
every agent of England had been obliged to flee, 
Count Hardenberg, the chief mediator with Minister 
and the British ministry, contrived for a series of 
years to elude their Argus eyes. An affected insig- 

* There is a very lively and interesting portrait of this illustrious 
man, drawn by Count Ouvaroff, in a pamphlet entitled c Stein and 
Pozzo di Borgo.' (Eidgway, 1847.) The author was Minister of 
Public Instruction in Russia, and a friend of the two eminent 
statesmen. 

f Wilhelm von Humboldt said, " If the events from 1810 to 1816 
were regarded as a drama, a poet could find no character more fitted 
to bring about its development than that of Hardenberg." 



344 



THE DEATH OF THE QUEEN. 



nificance and a stupid indifference to political affairs, 
and to all that did not concern his purse ; a cynical 
and blase air; a ludicrous avarice and an eager talk 
about funds and exchange, concealed the acute mind, 
the true German spirit, and the implacable hatred 
of France." 

The Queen returned to her palace and her people 
— but she brought back a broken heart ; and not all 
the adoration of which she was now, more than ever, 
the object, though it excited her warmest joy and gra- 
titude, could avert the fatal termination of her many 
sorrows. She had for some time had that strong 
yearning after the home of her childhood which is 
often excited by the dim presentiment of an eternal 
separation ; and in June, 1810, she was, though with 
difficulty, able to accomplish the journey to Strelitz ; 
but hardly had she embraced her father, when she 
was seized with her last mortal illness. She died, after 
intense suffering, borne with the greatest patience 
and sweetness, on the 19th July. 

The death of the Queen was one of the incidents 
which accelerated the march of the great heroic tra- 
gedy that was now being played out on the world's 
stage. The entrance of the funeral train which 
brought home that lovely body to its last resting- 
place, struck grief, rage, and resentment into all 



TNSULTS. 



345 



hearts. The gay and beautiful being whom they had 
admired and loved, was now invested in their eyes 
with the honours of martyrdom, and almost invoked 
as the tutelary saint who was to bless their arms and 
hallow their triumphs. 



Some apology may perhaps be found for the indig- 
nities offered by Napoleon to the Queen of Prussia 
and the Duke of Saxe Weimar, in the irritation and 
resentment excited by their hostility; but what can 
be said in defence of the humiliations gratuitously 
heaped on the conquered and the helpless"^? 

On occasion of Napoleon's visit to the theatre in 
Carlsruhe, the venerable Sovereign of the country, 
the oldest Prince of Germany, stood in the box op- 
posite to his. The Duke of Baden had a habit of 
putting his right hand into the breast of his but- 
toned coat. One of the Emperor's aides-de-camp 

# I have often ventured to say to Germans, that I thought them 
unjust to the French. " You would not say so," said a physician of 
Leipzig, " if you had looked out of your window at night and counted 
seven villages in flames." In a conversation on the same subject 
with the late Princess Hohenzollern (one of the four captivating 
daughters of Dorothea, Duchess of Courland, "the Armida of the 
North,") I quoted that reply : " Ce n'est pa3 meme cela," said she ; 
" ils auraient pille, brule, massacre ; on aurait tout oublie — car c'est 
la guerre ; — mais les humihations ! " She went on to say that I was 
an Englishwoman, and had never felt these evils myself, and that we 

Q 3 



346 



INSULTS 



entered Iris box, and had the audacity to tell him 
that such an attitude in front of the Emperor coidd 
not be permitted. The aged Prince drew his hand 
slowly out of his breast, and let his arm fall. The 
effect on his subjects was indescribable. 

Napoleon imagined that by treating the princes of 
Germany contemptuously^ he should teach their sub- 
jects to despise them. The effect was exactly con- 
trary. The exasperating insolence and contempt with 
which the assembled Princes were treated at Erfurt 
is well known. A number of stories of this kind 
were tolcl, and were so far useful, that every subject 
felt outraged in the person of his Prince. Napoleon 
could have discovered no better means to animate 
and strengthen whatever loyalty was lukewarm or 
doubtful. Nor was this irritating conduct confined 
to the Princes. Yarnhagen describes Napoleon' s be- 
haviour to a minister of one of the small German 
courts, at an audience at which he was present \ and 

English never felt or cared for others : — the common accusation. I 
did however understand what must be the feelings of a country 
where each class has its own peculiar store of embittered and re- 
sentful recollections. 

The conduct of the common soldiers was not half so much com- 
plained of as that of the ofhcers. On the contrary. I have heard a 
hundred stories of the good-nature and helpfulness of the soldiers, 
who would help then poor hostess to make the soup, nurse the 
baby, iron the linen. — and all with that alacrity and cleverness which 
are quite peculiar to Frenchmen. 



INSULTS. 



347 



adds, " Napoleon loved only to say something offen- 
sive, or at least disagreeable, to people." 

It may readily be imagined that the example of the 
Emperor was not lost upon the agents of his power, 
whether civil or military. Chancellor von Miiller lived 
on terms of intimacy with many of those Frenchmen 
who, even nnder such unfavourable circumstances, 
kept alive the traditions, and sustained the reputa- 
tion, of their country, and whose kind and courteous 
manners would, if anything could, have conciliated 
the conquered ; yet even he tells a number of anec- 
dotes which show to what the ministers of German 
governments were subject. 

Though we have no room for any of these, we must 
be excused for adding one, which we heard from the 
lips of a man whom we had thought it impossible to 
address without reverence ; one in whom an unsullied 
life and a constant and active philanthropy are set 
off by high scientific acquirements and long political 
experience. This eminent and excellent man was 
then Minister of the small State of Gotha; and it 
devolved on him to represent to Daru the misery to 
which the wretched peasants were reduced by the 
contributions already levied, and the impossibility of 
their paying more. Not only, he said, is all the 
produce of the land taken from them ; they must, if 



348 



INSULTS. 



more is demanded, part with the means of production 
—even to the last plough. In short, pleaded the af- 
flicted Minister, it will take from our people the bare 
means of sustaining life. Daru replied, " Monsieur, 
que vous viviez ou non est parfaitement indifferent. 
II nous faut les contributions*." 

The incurable wounds left by insult; — this is a 
chapter on which much might be said — for all need 
the lesson, and we ourselves not the least. Wherever 
the English are masters, they are disliked even by 
those who admit the comparative justice, veracity, 
and respect for institutions, which distinguish them. 
And why ? Let any Englishman, capable of under- 
standing the feelings of others, go and live among 
our foreign dependants and subjects, and he will be 
at no loss for an answer. If he does not find the 
aggressive impertinence of the French, he will find 
a cold insolence and a lordly contempt which inflict 
wounds as deep and as rankling. Fortunately for us, 
these propensities are somewhat controlled by the 
wiser doctrines and better temper of the masters of 
these masters of the world ; but more might be done 

* A French (General, who commanded in Mecklenburg in 1806, 
said to Count Bassewitz, who was expostulating with him on the 
utter draining of the country, " Monsieur, la volonte de l'Empereur 
doit etre faite. Yous voyez cette arbre ; si l'Empereur m'ordonne de 
vous y attacher, vous serez pendu dans la minute.'' 



THE PRESS. 



349 



to bring insolence into discredit. Whatever be the 
superiorities of Englishmen, they would be neither 
less obvious, nor less willingly admitted, if they were 
carried with a little less superciliousness towards the 
weak and the dependent. 



Gorres says that Bonaparte neither respected nor 
feared any other opposition than that of physical 
force, and had no idea that any other power of resis- 
tance was still alive in Germany. But this is an ex- 
aggeration. Bonaparte, like every man who wants 
to force his own will upon other men, hated and 
feared the Press; and if that of Germany did not 
perish under his gripe, it was only because neither he 
nor his agents understood its language. His hatred 
and his fear were just. He had already crushed it in 
France ; and it was not to be expected that he would 
treat his conquered and discontented subjects with 
greater liberality than those upon whose unqualified 
submissiveness he had so much reason to rely. No- 
thing could exceed the oppressiveness of the espionage 
exercised by the French authorities ; it knew no limits 
but those opposed by their ignorance. Many impor- 
tant things were published, simply because they were 
not understood ; and many perfectly unimportant 



350 



THE THEATRE. 



were made the objects of ludicrous investigation and 
exasperating severity. 

Chancellor von Miiller says « that the presence of 
Davoust, who was Governor of Erfurt in 1808-9, was 
most oppressive to Weimar*. His system of espionage 
extended to everything— to the most trifling occur- 
rence in the town/' And again : " Germany felt more 
and more the oppressive insolence of the French au- 
thorities. Any expression of liberal opinions was 
watched with the utmost keenness, and, wherever it 
was possible, suppressed. The suspicious attention 
of the French agents was especially directed to the 
German theatre. The representation of a piece that 
gave the least umbrage to this suspicion,— the slight- 
est allusion to any political event, — called forth the 
most odious and vexatious inquisition. Under such 
circumstances Goethe would no longer undertake the 
sole responsibility of the Weimar theatre : he begged 
the Duke to associate me with him in this unpleasant 
duty, which I fulfilled for two years." 

Such was the dread of certain words, that, after 
Friedrich Schlegers Poems were actually printed, 

* Davoust said "that nothing but their literature rendered it pos- 
sible for the Germans to regard themselves as a nation." Fortu- 
nately, their " ideologie" was impenetrable to him ; so that the sen- 
timents of freedom and nationality which it veiled, remained a pro- 
found secret. 



PALM j THE BOOKSELLER. 



351 



the French censor ordered the leaf containing the 
Gelubde to be cut out, because it contained the fol- 
lowing lines : — 

" Es sei mein Herz mid Blut geweiht 
Dich, Yaterland, zu retten # !" 

We might fill a volume with proofs of the deadly- 
hostility and fear with which Napoleon regarded those 
most awful of all powers, which fire cannot burn, nor 
floods quench, nor all the weapons of war so much as 
touch, — the thoughts and utterances of man. But 
they are not needed. Do we not know, do we not 
daily see, that the first desire of all tyrants, whether 
monarchs or mobs, is to silence, and if possible, ex- 
tinguish, these ? Justice, Truth, Humanity, can en- 
dure their attacks ; can tolerate, while they deplore, 
their errors and excesses ; but we expect no such cou- 
rageous indulgence, no such faith in the final triumph 
of reason, from ill-gotten or ill-employed power. 

We shall only refer to one tragical incident con- 
nected with this subject, which, comparatively small 
in itself, was pregnant with great moral consequences. 
Palm, a Niirnberg bookseller, a man of quiet and 
pious life, was arrested for selling or having in his 
possession a pamphlet entitled c Germany in its deep- 
est Degradation/ The mode of his arrest was pecu- 

* Be my heart and blood devoted to save thee, my country ! 



352 



EXECUTION OF PALM. 



liarly odious. He had escaped to Erlangen, but his 
anxiety for his family brought him back to Nurn- 
berg, and he remained concealed in his own house. 
One day a poor boy came to the shop with a list of 
subscriptions for a soldier's widow, and begged to 
speak to Palm himself. Palm unsuspectingly admitted 
him, and gave him some money. Hardly was he 
gone, when two French gendarmes forced their way 
into his chamber, and took him before the General. 
It was in vain that the guiltless man affirmed, and 
offered to prove, that he had received the pamphlet 
in a bale or package of which he knew not the con- 
tents, and that not a single copy had been sold in his 
shop ; he was sent by Berthier before a military com- 
mission ; and, " whereas nothing is more urgent than 
to check the progress of doctrines by which the rights 
of nations, the due reverence for crowned heads, and 
all order and subordination would be overthrown," 
he was condemned and shot the following day at 
Branau. The death of this innocent man excited at 
the time the strongest feeling of pity, indignation, 
and disgust throughout Europe; among other marks 
of which was the subscription raised in England for 
his widow and children. 

We have touched on an event with which most of 
our readers are doubtless familiar, chiefly, we confess, 



TWO CHRISTIANS. 



353 



that we may introduce them to a picture of obscure 
virtue and genuine charity, in the contemplation of 
which the heart, sickened by cruelty, and depressed 
by the triumphs of bold bad men, finds refreshment 
and repose. Palm, a Lutheran, was shot at Branau, 
where there was at the time no minister of that con- 
fession. There is extant a letter to his wife, from 
one of two Catholic priests who administered the last 
comforts of religion to him, which is one of the most 
beautiful and unstudied expressions of true Christian 
charity that we know of. We would fain insert the 
whole outpouring of simple, artless, tender sympathy, 
but space fails us. 

The following passage is worthy of everlasting re- 
membrance. 

" In spite of the difference of our religious creed, 
of which he instantly and frankly informed me, our 
message (i. e. whether our presence and exhortations 
in this awful moment would be consolatory to him ? 
and otherwise that we would on no account trouble 
him,) was most welcome to him, and he gave a ready 
ear to our expressions of general charity and faith • 
for, in obedience to perfect tolerance and brotherly 
love, we would not in the slightest degree disturb 
the persuasions he had entertained from youth up, 
or the creed he had piously obeyed. He requested 



354 



TWO CHRISTIANS. 



me to tell you his two favourite hymns, namely, 
'Alles ist an Gottes Segen/ and 'Gott Lob, nun 
ist es wieder Morgen/ (which he repeatedly pro- 
nounced with the greatest devotion) that you might 
teach them to your children, and commend them to 
them for their whole lives ; and to assure you that 
they had given him the greatest comfort and peace 
all his life, but especially in his last hours on the 
20th of August. 

" He also expressed a desire to receive the Lord's 
Supper after the forms of his own faith, which how- 
ever could not be fulfilled, for the want of a minister 
of his own confession. But we tranquillized him 
fully on this head, by the assurance that our Lord 
and Saviour is of a certainty with those that seek 
him and follow after him in life and in death ; as was 
especially the case with him. 

" So, amidst friendly converse, the last minutes of 
his life imperceptibly drew nigh. He commended 
you and his children to the especial care of the 
Most High, and prayed that He would be a Father 
to the fatherless ; concerning which also we strove to 
set his mind at rest." 

These true ministers of Christ not only went to the 
French authorities and implored a respite of two or 
three days, but, when that was denied, accompanied 



THOMAS POSCHL. 



355 



the victim to the scene of his death, though with an- 
guish and suffering which seriously affected the health 
of the writer. The letter, which is long, ends thus : — 

" Dearest Madam, were we not divided by so wide 
a space, and did my duties permit me so long a jour- 
ney, I should certainly have the happiness of admi- 
nistering comfort and peace to you in this bitterest 
sorrow : we should have so much to speak of." 

The name of this faithful servant of Christ was 
Thomas Poschl, secular priest in Salzburg. While 
the names of the murderers of the guiltless — Ney, 
Bernadotte, Davoust, — enjoy a sort of immortality, 
that of this admirable man is unknown or forgotten. 
Let at least one respectful hand commend it to the 
love and veneration of mankind ! Not however with- 
out feeling how little human respect can act as mo- 
tive or reward to such virtues as his ; not without a 
humiliating sense of the contrast such charity pre- 
sents to the odious and unchristian brawls with which 
England continually re-echoes. 

Palm died with heroic constancy. At the last 
moment pardon was offered him, if he would reveal 
the name of the author of the pamphlet, but he 
steadily refused. His death, which was intended to 
strike terror into Germany, was one of the sparks 
which kindled the great fire of national vengeance ; 



356 



THE HANOVERIAN LEGION. 



and afforded another proof of the blindness to conse- 
quences with which Heaven visits human pride and 
ambition. 



If the preludes to the war of 1806 were fearful, 
those to the war of 1809 were more fearful still. 
Orange, Hesse, Brunswick, were to be for ever 
struck out of the list of princes ; Mecklenburg, the 
Hanse Towns, and the Saxon States were inhumanly 
drained ; the kingdom of Westphalia, composed out 
of the ruins of the Prussian provinces of the Elbe 
and Weser, Brunswick, Hanover, and Hesse, was 
given to Jerome Bonaparte. Frenchmen and servants 
of Frenchmen, French language, laws, and douaniers, 
ruled with unlimited sway. 

In Prussia and the North all who could possibly 
escape by the Elbe, through Holstein and Mecklen- 
burg, and get on board English ships, horse and man, 
armed and accoutred, formed a German legion across 
the sea ; and neither political persecutions, dungeons, 
death, nor even the thought of the family they left 
behind, could stop the torrent of brave and boiling 
youth which rushed to fight against the world-op- 
pressor. Before Copenhagen, in Sicily, in the Ionian 
Islands, did this legion fight. It took a conspicuous 
part in the deliverance of Spain and Portugal in the 



SCHILL. 



357 



the great days of Corunna, Talavera, Albuera, and 
the long series which ended with the judgement-day 
of Waterloo. Others, exasperated beyond endurance 
at the degradation of their country, and the inaction 
of their governments, declared war on the mighty foe. 
Handfuls of men against countless hosts, " they were 
crushed, but not the invincible cohorts out of whose 
ranks they had arisen." The popular hatred, as it 
found no legitimate leaders, sought and found those 
heroic and self-devoting chiefs who are sure to arise 
in nations where patriotism is more ardent among 
the people than in the governments. The enterprises 
of Katt, Schill, Dorenberg, Hofer, and others, were 
the preludes to the general outburst of war. " Spec- 
tral hopes," says Hormayr, " flitted through the heads 
and hearts of the people." All these heroic struggles 
were isolated; had they been concentrated, incalcu- 
lable effects might have been produced. 

Schill began his warfare upon Napoleon with two 
deserters from his former regiment (dragoons) . In 
less than a month he was at the head of four 
squadrons of hussars, a company of mounted jagers, 
a small body of light infantry, and a few small field- 
pieces, — about a thousand men, under able officers, 
fully organized. With this band of volunteers he 
made war, as the Germans say, 'on his own hand/ 



358 



SCHILL. 



At the peace of Tilsit he was recalled by the King to 
Berlin, raised to the rank of Major, and his troop 
to that of a hussar regiment of guards. But the 
favours he received from the court were nothing, com- 
pared to the idolatry with which he was regarded by 
the people. His entry into Berlin the following year 
was like a triumph. 

In 1809, when Austria declared war, and Prus- 
sia, crushed and exhausted, remained bound to the 
French alliance, S chill, who could not endure the 
subjection of his country, quitted Berlin on pretext 
of exercising his regiment — never to return. He 
disclosed his plan to his officers and men, not one of 
whom deserted him ; and many others from various 
parts flocked to his standard. But the time for re- 
sistance was not come. The devoted troop reached 
Stralsund, whence they hoped to escape to England, 
but no vessels were at hand. Schill died fighting in 
the streets. Twelve of his officers were taken pri- 
soners by the French and shot, and the rest sent to 
the galleys. 

Schill is another proof of the tenacity with which 
the people cling to the belief that their heroes are not 
dead. They were firmly persuaded that he was living 
in profound concealment in England, and would re- 
appear to deliver his country at the appointed mo- 



SCHILL. 



359 



ment"*. The people have always a strong feeling of 
their own helplessness. It is not among the masses 
that any confidence in masses is to be found; they 
invariably fix their confidence^ hope,, and love, — often,, 
alas ! how blindly ! — upon an individual ; from his ge- 
nius and conduct they expect their own safety. 

A price w T as set upon S chill's head in a proclama- 
tion, in which he was described as " a sort of bri- 

# ~Not to mention the well-known legends of Arthur and Frederic 
Barbarossa, we may quote the less familiar story of Marco, the 
Servian hero. The mace thrown into the sea by the dying hero will 
remind our readers of Arthur and his Escalibor ; the sleeping in the 
mountain, of Frederic Redbeard. 

When Marco's death was announced to him, he drew his sword, 
and first killed his faithful steed, that he might not suffer after his 
master's death. After he had buried him, " better than his own 
brother," he broke his sword into four pieces, that it might not fall 
into the hands of the Turks. Then he broke Ins lance into seven 
pieces, and threw them into the thicket. But his mace (Topus) 
he threw into the deep sea, — an inheritance for the future. For 
with the rise of that mace out of the depths of the sea are con- 
nected the future of his race, the deliverance of his country from 
the Turks, its restoration to Christianity, and the freedom and in- 
dependence of his brethren. Marco then lay down under a tree, 
and died without wound or pain. His body was found by a holy 
man from Mount Athos, and carried to the convent of Chilinclar, 
and there buried, but without anything to mark the spot, lest his 
enemies should come and disturb the body. Hence the people will 
not believe him dead, In all their songs and legends Marco is still 
living, and some say that he still performs feats of valour in various 
parts : some, that he retired to the Mwina mountain to rest, and is 
still sleeping there. When he awakes, he will go into battle again, 
and thunder with his mace on the heads of his enemies. 



360 



AUSTRIA. 



gand." Two Weimar officers who had been taken 
prisoners by S chill's free corps were liberated on 
parole that they would not bear arms against Prussia 
or Russia for a year. They pleaded therefore that 
they could not serve in the campaign then going on. 
The matter was referred to the Prince of Neufchatel ; 
his answer was : " Les paroles d'honneur en question 
sont nulles. On ne &' engage point avec des bandes 
de brigands, dont les individus seraient pendus ou fu- 
silles s'ils etaient pris." 

The hold which the time-honoured dignity of the 
Empire still had on the hearts and imaginations of 
the German people was seen as soon as she once 
more drew the sword. " It was not/' says Perthes, 
" in Austria, or Prussia, or any of the larger States, 
which possessed the apparent possibility of depend- 
ing on themselves, that the attachment to the Em- 
pire existed. It was in the smaller principalities and 
counties that people still talked of ' our Emperor, 3 
and that the sentiment of the connection between the 
parts of the Empire still subsisted, — not indeed as a 
political or vital force, but as a political tradition/' 
And even now, throughout all the elements of the 
former Empire, which had been torn in pieces and 
scattered to the winds, — in the mediatized and secu- 
larized States, the Knightships and the Imperial 



INSURRECTION IN TYROL. 



361 



Cities, the people breathed the same pious prayers 
for Austria, the same curses on the French. What 
was the popular feeling, may be gathered from 
the following facts, taken from among thousands. 
Between the end of April and the beginning of 
August, between the Rhine and the Lech, 23,000 
Austrian prisoners of war were smuggled into Tyrol 
through Switzerland. They were guided through 
secret and pathless ways, chiefly by night; hidden 
by day in woods, where food was conveyed to them, 
without a single example of a man being betrayed, 
even by women or children; and all this in the very 
midst of the enemy's armies. Detached parties 
of five-and-twenty to eighty men made their way 
safely through to Bohemia. Even at the bridge of 
Kehl, over the Rhine, deserters from their Baden 
escort were guided through the Black Forest to the 
southern shore of the Lake of Constance, with equal 
skill and boldness. Forty-seven men fought their way 
from the Lake of Constance into Bohemia. 

Of the heroic insurrection in Tyrol it is unneces- 
sary to speak. That episode in the war has a history 
of its own; and there are few to whom the simple 
heroism, the profound love of God and Fatherland, 
the intrepid deeds and the tragic end of Hofer and 
Speckbacher, are not known. Too well known, also, 

R 



362 PEACE OF 1810. 

is the reward such deeds and such sufferings obtained 
from the Sovereign for whom they fought and bled. 

" Si le but de la revolte des Tyroliens est de rester 
attaches a rAutriche," said Napoleon, " je n'ai plus 
qu'a leur declarer une guerre eternelle, parcequ'il est 
dans mes intentions quails ne retournent jamais sous 
la domination d'Autriche." He added, that if they 
would petition for a constitution like that of the 
kingdom of Italy, they should have it; but not yet : — 
" pour menager la clignite de la Baviere et celle de la 
France." But the decrees of gods of clay are as brit- 
tle as themselves. Not one of these was accomplished. 

Yet, for the moment, the power of the conqueror 
seemed resistless, and every attempt to shake, it only 
to add to its strength and permanence. Not a few 
among her princes, as well as among her statesmen and 
soldiers, now imagined the fate of Germany decided 
for ever, and laid themselves at the feet of Napoleon 
as the instrument of a resistless destiny. The prayers 
and the curses, the toil and the blood, offered up for 
Austria were offered up in vain ; again she fell, and 
in 1810 gave her daughter as a hostage to the con- 
queror. " Encore trois ans, et je serai le maitre de 
Funivers," said Napoleon in that year to General 
Wrede, who was with him on a hunting party, — 
boring his stick into the ground. 



MARRIAGE OF NAPOLEON. 



363 



The alliance with France, brilliant as it seemed, 
was equally hateful to the Emperor, the nobles, and 
the people of Austria. The feeling of the former with 
regard to it was expressed in his own peculiar lan- 
guage to Prince Metternich, after the battle of Lutzen 
and Bautzen. " Z'earst will I von Napoleon d'Allianz 
z^riickhaben, derweil kann I mi in alii Sattel richten ! 
z'earst bringen's mi d^Allianz zuriick^." 

The people, in a dialect, and with a humour very 
like that of their Emperor, expressed their satisfaction 
in terms not very flattering to their ally, and still less 
so to their government and themselves. Vienna was 
brilliantly illuminated in honour of the marriage of 
Napoleon and Maria Louisa. But while such inscrip- 
tions as "Ex Unione Pax," etc. etc., gleamed from 
the stately palaces of the nobility, the motherwit of 
the Viennese broke forth in the streets in such ex- 
pressions as these : " Now he's done for ! " " Now 
we have caught him ! " " Now we've inoculated him 
with Austrian ill-luck and Austrian stupidity ! " 

In the preceding years, Austria had gained much 
in the estimation and the sympathy of Germany, by 
her vigorous and noble efforts to break the bonds of 
Europe. She had waged an unfortunate, but a glo- 

* " First I will have back the alliance from Napoleon, then I can 
seat myself in any saddle. First get me back the Alliance." 

E 2 



364 MA3.HLAGE OP NAPOLEON. 

noiis war. Amidst all her calamities, the courage 
and devotedness of the nation had never failed, and 
she had evinced great military ability and a lofty pa- 
triotism. But the marriage of an Archduchess with 
Napoleon destroyed her prestige. When the great 
uprising of nations took place, the inflexible resolu- 
tion with which Frederic Wililiam III. had resisted 
every proposal to connect his family with that of the 
invader, was urged as entitling him to take the lead 
in that great revolt ; and contrasted with the con- 
duct of Austria, Bavaria, Baden, and Wiirtemberg, 
who had intermarried with a family execrated by the 
people. 

Little testimony is needed to convince us that this 
alliance was odious to the Austrian public, however 
it might be accepted as a necessity. Even those 
classes most practised and skilled in concealing their 
sentiments could not wholly disguise their repug- 
nance to their new allies. " Even in the brilliant 
Av.srriar. En:-a>sy a: Paris.'-' says Varriiare::. "'alter 
the marriage of Maria Louisa, a German could easily 
perceive, through all the politeness, a settled aversion 
to the new alliance, and a constant recurrence to the 
thought of future resistance 

"As to the public tempe 
very anxious to understand 




ASPECTS OF GERMANY. 



365 



two opposite and apparently incompatible tendencies 
flowed on in perfect silence side by side. To judge by 
outward expressions, all were for friendship and union 
with France, — and these passed current without dis- 
pute ; but in secret, the very contrary appeared, and 
all indirect movements were obviously in an opposite 
direction. At the feast given by the French Ambas- 
sador, on the birth of the King of Rome, the Im- 
perial Court of Austria appeared in great splendour ; 
but out of eight hundred persons invited, scarcely six 
hundred were present, and the greater part of these 
quitted the room the instant the Emperor left it. This 
was on the :20th of May; on the 21st, the anniver- 
sary of the battle of Aspern was celebrated with ex- 
traordinary demonstrations at Prague. Private sol- 
diers who had been present at that battle were fetched 
by the colonel and staff officers in open carriages, and 
had places of honour assigned them at table." 



We throw together, almost at hazard, a few of the 
gloomy and terrific pictures of Germany during the 
days of her bondage, drawn by faithful witnesses ; 
some of them, by master hands. We are perhaps 
guilty of repetition ; but, though the misery and the 
ruin were common to all Germany, they had, in 



866 ASPECTS OF GERMANY. 

every place and to every witness, a different aspect 
and character. Their descriptions are like the fa- 
cettes of a prism — each has a colour of its own. 

Let us first quote the illustrious Niebuhr. " Even 
close to Konigsberg, you see ruined and deserted 
houses ; in the villages, more than half are uninha- 
bited; there are no cattle in the fields — here and 
there, but very rarely, a scanty flock of sheep or 
swine ; scarcely any people to be seen ; — everything 
bespeaks misery and fear. We passed through a part 
of the country which has suffered the most grievously 
from devastation and disease.. The country from 
Braunsberg to beyond the Prussian March is, for ten 
miles (German), magnificent, stretching away in hills 
of considerable height ; a very fruitful soil, inhabited, 
before these disastrous times, by opulent peasants in 
pretty villages, scarcely exceeded by those of the 
finest parts of Holstein. But the roads are in the 
most deplorable state, from the passage of troops and 
the transport of artillery, since which it has been im- 
possible to mend them; for there are scarcely any 
men, and still less horses, to be found in the country. 
The land all lies fallow, and bears, as our hostess 
sadly said, only flowers." 

Even in the Memoirs or Correspondences of men 
who took no part in public affairs or in the war, por- 



ASPECTS OF GERMANY. 



367 



tentous incidents and appearances startle us as we 
read. Take, for example, this, from the memoirs of 
the quiet scholar, Peter von Bohlen. In 1810, when 
he was apprentice to a tailor, he was ordered, with a 
great many other boys, to appear before the French 
authorities. They were taken from their parents, and 
sent away, whither they knew not. " We filled two 
waggons," says he, "and on the road we met with 
several caravans of boys. It is still unintelligible to 
me what the French meant to do with these boys, or 
what they did do with them. It was said that they 
were to be sent to military schools ; but, to the best 
of my knowledge, nothing more was ever heard of 
any one of those who were taken away." Bohlen 
was lodged with sixty more in one inn at Ansich. 
They, and many more, were measured, and the un- 
dersized, of whom he was fortunate enough to be 
one, were sent back to their homes'*. 

"Frightful executions," says Immermann ? "were 
part of the lessons which were presented to our young 
eyes [in Magdeburg] . I was thirteen years old, when 
I saw two pale men led through our street to the 
gate of the city. The one was young, the other 
aged. They were chained together, and the young- 
man spoke encouragingly to the old, who looked ex- 

* Autobiographic von Dr. Peter v. Bohlen. Konigsberg, 1841. 



368 ASPECTS OF GERMANS'. 

tremely dejected. Gendarmes rode before and be- 
hind, and a company of infantry followed. I heard 
they were a father and son, led out to be shot for 
serving in Katt's corps. 

" A few weeks after I heard firing : it was S chill 
fighting with the Westphalians at Dadendorf. The 
people never would believe that S chill fell; — it was a 
French fable ; he was alive, and would re-appear at 
the right moment. The people suffer not their idols 
to die*. 

" Then came the noble retreat of Brunswick-Oels. 
We were mere boys, but I can affirm that we felt all 
the grandeur of the situation, when we heard that the 
Guelph had visited his city in his march, and, refusing 
to sleep in his palace, had passed the night watching 
under the starry heavens. 

" The wounded feelings of youth were worked up 
to a romantic intensity of hatred. The state of mind 
of the young men of my time was rather intense than 
enlarged; more prone to feeling and determination, 
than to observation or reason. It was a state of 
noble barbarism — and in such a temper they met the 
war." 

Varnhagen puts into his own beautiful language the 
sentiments which were common to all the young men 

* See note, p. 359. 



ASPECTS OF GERMANY. 



369 



capable of feeling and reflection, just after the occu- 
pation of Berlin in 1811. 

" Full of grief and indignation, a stranger to every 
ray of enthusiasm, in a state of continual expectation, 
without support or rest or encouragement, I see the 
fleeting days pass by. The public cause, for which I 
cherish the highest hopes with unshaken confidence, 
lies still in the dim, dim distance. 

" As each German land and city in former ages 
represented the strength and the prosperity of the 
nation in its own peculiar manner, so now does each 
land and city express the universal misery. What 
different pictures are exhibited by Hamburg, Mini- 
ster, Halle, Wetzlar, Hanover, Regensburg; or again, 
by Hessen, Baireuth, Tyrol ; in each it is another, a 
peculiar ruin, and in all the cause the same — the do- 
mination of strangers. How melancholy stands this 
once so proud and happy Frankfurt ! The old Im- 
perial City, that formerly saw within her walls the 
election and coronation of Emperors, glad in her free- 
dom and her prosperity, how is she fallen ! 

" The cities of Westphalia look as if they were for 
sale — beautiful gothic churches and no people. In 
the last few years they have belonged to six different 
masters. 

"A severe conscription, — under a native govern- 

r 3 



370 



ASPECTS OF GERMANY. 



ment the most just of measures, but under a foreign, 
the most fearful, — drags away the youth of Germany. 
The blood of her sons is shed in a strange cause, on 
the Tagus and the Wolga, only to cement the bonds 
of those who remain at home. The proposal to pro- 
cure substitutes, as in France, was rejected with the 
utmost harshness. But, though in this, and many 
other respects, it would be better for the people to 
become wholly French, — though Frankfurt has for 
years been the centre of French intercourse with 
Germany, and is connected by innumerable interests 
with France, the spirit of the people is only roused 
to more determined opposition. I was assured that 
for the last fifteen years no Frankfurt lady had mar- 
ried a Frenchman. Like some romantic island parted 
from us byvrild and waste w r aters, the so-called ' Em- 
pire' still lives in affectionate remembrance. Now 
the noisy French drum is daily heard under our win- 
dows. I ought to be more used to it. I shall never 
be used to it." 

" What cares he," says Arndt, " whose sole desire 
is to conquer and to rule, if hundreds of thousands 
perish from hunger, or groan under Asiatic despot- 
ism ? Go to Swabia and Bavaria, and see the aspect 
of the land ; and not in those spots alone where hun- 
dreds of thousands have met on the field. Famine 



ASPECTS OF GERMANY. 



371 



and pestilence follow in the train of war, and a whole 
generation sinks helpless into depravity and degrada- 
tion. The sacred bands of society are loosed. The 
citizen turns cheat, and the peasant robber ; the op- 
pressed, infuriated people become murderers and in- 
cendiaries. Listen to the description of those lesser 
calamities which sound but faint and insignificant 
amidst the great scenes of carnage, and imagine the 
rest!" 

Prussia was inundated with French troops, who 
lived at free quarters ; whilst Napoleon, in defiance 
of the treaty he himself had dictated, gave orders 
that everything the land afforded should be given up 
for the use of his troops, and the inhabitants aban- 
doned to famine and despair. Spandau, Pillau, and 
Konigsberg were taken and occupied by French 
troops ; Berlin had a French garrison and a French 
governor : war could have scarcely brought greater 
evils on the country than such a peace, Scharnhorst, 
Gneisenau, and Boyen were dismissed, as the French 
had long urged ; Chazot, Dohna, Liitzow, Muffling, 
and other distinguished officers, immediately resigned, 
and entered the Russian service, in the hope of aiding 
under her banner the beloved country they could not 
serve at home. 

The worst feature of the war was the hatred of 



372 



INTERNAL ENMITIES. 



German to German, which it engendered or aggra- 
vated. We have heard it said at Berlin, and confirmed 
from Mecklenburg, that the inhabitants entreated to 
have French soldiers quartered upon them, men of any 
nation — " nur nicht Baiern !" (only not Bavarians !) 
Among the gifts which Napoleon distributed among 
the Princes of the Rhine-Confederation after the bat- 
tle of Ratisbon (Eckmiihl), was Mersentheim, which 
belonged to the Teutonic Order, and which he gave 
to King Frederic of Wurtemberg, one of his earliest 
allies. This caused a sort of revolt among the pea- 
santry, which was put clown in the most savage man- 
ner by T\ r iirtemberg troops ; some were hanged^ others 
shot, and a proclamation issued to the intent that, 
" wherever one of the Wurtemberg authorities was 
injured or insulted, the whole village should be burnt 
down, and every adult male should be put to death." 
If such was the conduct of even Swabians to their 
countrymen, what might be expected from Germans 
of less kindly race ? 

Contempt of Saxony, on account of her tardy 
desertion of the French alliance, is still alive in 
Prussian hearts ; and not less so, dislike and fear of 
Prussia in those of Saxons, for the large share of 
their country she acquired by the severe sentence of 
the Congress of Vienna. Even the experience of the 



ASPECTS OF GERMANY. 



373 



calamitous weakness and ruin which Germany owed 
to division, and all the mighty force she gained by 
union, has failed, as the events of late years have 
shown too well, to bring about that cordial reconci- 
liation of German with German, upon which, and 
not upon any violent political or territorial changes, 
the much talked-of Unity of Germany must rest. 

Let us sum up the aspects of Germany at this time 
in the words of a very enlightened and disinterested 
observer from another country. 

" The spectacle of the profound humiliation of Ger- 
many was calculated to afflict every generous heart. 

u Austria, which during the struggle had displayed 
such admirable energy, seemed to have lost the senti- 
ment of her existence ; the prostration of her moral, 
as well as of her physical strength was complete. 
The matrimonial alliance contracted with France put 
the seal to the new and melancholy destinies of the 
Empire, and it appeared that the future safety of what 
remained of Austria depended entirely on the good- 
will and the generosity of her ancient foe, now be- 
come her master. The country was exhausted, the 
continental system was felt there in all its severity, 
and a national bankruptcy appeared imminent. As 
to the head of the State, adversity had had no effect 
in softening or elevating his heart; Francis II. was 



374 



ASPECTS OF GERMANY. 



as insensible to the fate of Hofer, the valiant leader 
of the Tyrolese insurrection, as he was afterwards 
obdurate to that of Gonfalonieri. 

" Prussia, already annihilated, had been unable to 
do more than put up impotent vows during the glo- 
rious but disastrous struggle of Austria against France. 
The chances of war had raised her hopes for a mo- 
ment, only to replunge them into deeper discourage- 
ment. If insurrectional movements were attempted 
by a few Prussian patriots, it was evident that they 
had acted less from any hope of success, than from an 
imperious desire to fulfil what they thought a duty. 
Generous and devoted victims, they sacrificed them- 
selves, in order to prove to Europe that all thought of 
resistance and of liberty was not extinct in German 
hearts. Some, led by the heroic Schill, perished on 
the field of battle ; others, escorted by German gens- 
d'armes, traversed as captives the countries they had 
sought to liberate : though they well knew the fate 
that awaited them, all of them were calm and digni- 
fied, and frill of noble pride. 

" Yet, however desperate were these efforts on the 
part of Prussia, then so feeble, so hemmed in, they 
proved at least that the sentiment of nationality was 
not dead in the hearts of her children, and promised 
a certain and glorious resurrection in the future* 



ASPECTS OF GERMANY. 



375 



" The rest of the ancient Germanic body, forming 
the Confederation of the Rhine, was completely under 
the influence of its all-powerful protector ; and this 
new organization obliterated the last trace of the 
Holy Roman Empire,, 

u The condition of the people belonging to the new 
kingdom of Westphalia was the least tolerable ; and 
they would have better liked to see their country 
openly annexed to France as a province, than ewploite 
as a separate kingdom. In spite of the antiquated 
usages it had destroyed, and the useful institutions it 
had introduced, the Westphalians were most impa- 
tient to throw off the French domination. Nor was 
this impatience peculiar to Germany : I remarked it 
also in Switzerland and in Italy*." 

* " La Russie et les Brasses," par 1ST, Tourgueneff. YoL I, Paris. 
1847. M. cle Tourgueneff, the author of the valuable and interesting 
work quoted above, was formerly Minister of Public Instruction in 
Russia, and was banished for his supposed complicity in some plot, 
in which he had no share whatever. His brother, Alexander Tour- 
gueneff, must be remembered by many in England ; he had known 
almost all the eminent men in Europe, and his conversation was 
singularly entertaining and instructive. Though in no way impli- 
cated in the charge brought against his brother, he voluntarily quit- 
ted Russia, and shared his banishment. The last time I saw him (in 
1844) he was on his way to Moscow. While there, he collected funds 
to alleviate the sufferings of a party of exiles going to Siberia. The 
morning of their departure was one of the most intense cold ; but ill 
and feeble as M. Tourgueneff was, he persisted in going at an early 
hour to distribute these succours himself to the poor exiles. He 



376 



WARNINGS. 



But the moment now drew nigh in which the people 
of Germany could lose no more, and might possibly 
regain all by a manly resistance. Eyen the Princes 
of the Rhine-Confederation could no longer deceive 
themselves as to their situation. The King of West- 
phalia wrote to his brother : " The ferment has risen 
to the highest pitch ; the maddest hopes are enter- 
tained and enthusiastically cherished ; the example of 
Spain is quoted; and if war breaks out, the whole 
country between the Rhine and the Oder will be the 
seat of an immense and formidable insurrection. The 
main cause of this movement is not alone the hatred 
of the French, and the impatience of a foreign yoke ; 
but the misery of the times, the ruin of all classes, 
the insupportable load of duties, war taxes, contribu- 
tions, maintenance of troops, and continually recur- 
ring exactions of every sort. The despair of the 
people, who have nothing more to lose, since every- 
thing has been taken from them, is to be feared. The 
foe will not break out only in Westphalia, and the 
countries subject to France, but in all the States of 
the Confederate Princes. They will fall the first sa- 
crifices to their subjects, if they do not take part in 
the revolt. The people are indifferent to high poli- 

wertt home and returned to his bed, from which he rose no more : 
he died in the exercise of courage and charity worthy of a Christian. 



WARNINGS. 



377 



tical combinations ; they only feel what immediately 
presses upon tkeni." 

Napoleon shut his eyes to this state of things, and 
dismissed the letter with the following remark : " If 
the King's troops are not to be relied on, whose fault 
is it? The King maintains too many troops, and 
spends too much." Napoleon's contempt of the peo- 
ple was too profound for such representations to have 
any effect on his plans. 

Fouche well knew what was concocting throughout 
Germany, especially in the vengeance-breathing ar- 
mies of Prussia ; but he left it to Davoust to impart 
this to Napoleon. Yet it appears that, however others 
might endeavour to conceal, or he himself to disre- 
gard, the menacing appearances which now thickened 
around him, occasional gleams of the dangers to be 
apprehended from a people driven to despair, passed 
before the conqueror's eyes. At the time of the 
attempt made on his life by the heroic boy Stapss, 
whose calm contempt of death and devotion to his 
country would have been worthy of all honour had 
they been differently displayed, reports of so threat- 
ening a kind had reached Bonaparte from Tyrol, 
Carinthia, Styria, and elsewhere, that at length 
he uttered to Champagny and others the remark- 
able words : " Si la paix ne se fait pas, nous allons 



378 



1812. 



etre entoures de raille Vendees. II est temps de 
finir"*." 

It was indeed time to have done. But the torrent 
was now beyond his control, and hurried him on to 
the accomplishment of his destiny. The fateful year 
1812 arrived. Austria, sustained by the universal 
enthusiasm of her people, had a fourth time declared 
war, u a fourth time," says Count Alexander de La- 
bordc, with the admiration of a generous foef, " rosg 
superior to her reverses, and appeared more formida- 
ble than ever in the arena. Those who had hitherto 
only deplored the fate of their country, now deter- 
mined to avenge her. 33 The mass of the people, in 
whom the feeling of intolerable oppression had kept 
alive the hatred of the stranger, and the trust in de- 
liverance through God's help and their own exertions, 
were full of zeal and ardour. " They are," says Stein, 
" firmly and unalterably in favour of the continuance 
of the war for independence, and their efforts are great 
and strenuous. It is delightful to witness the noble 
sentiments and the readiness of this excellent people, 
to endure and to sacrifice everything in order to save 
their country from destruction." 

# Lebensbilder, etc. 

f M. de Laborde had been sent to Vienna in 1810 with Berthier, 
to demand the hand of Maria Louisa. 



PRAGUE. 



379 



Nor were the higher classes less resolute or less 
self- devoting. We have heard the state of Prague at 
that time described, both by those who went to the 
wars, and by those, more to be pitied, who were left 
behind. Of all the numerous and wealthy Bohemian 
nobility, only two men capable of bearing arms re- 
mained in Prague. No ties availed as against those 
of country*. 

In the meanwhile the unhappy King of Prussia - 
was alternately making such preparations for war as 
were least likely to attract the suspicions of the 
French, and then, in consequence of Napoleon's 
threats, desisting from them. Among other things 
done to propitiate the tyrant, Bliicher was dismissed 
the service. In January, 1812, Napoleon dictated to 
Prussia the terms of an alliance with Prance against 
Europe. Under the most difficult circumstances, sur- 
rounded by hostile troops, far from ail succour, the 

* One of the incidents which awoke in me the full sense of what 
war is j and what recollections it leaves, was this. I complained of 
the steep and rough descent into Prague along the KLeinseite — the 
street in which most of the stately palaces of the nobility are situ- 
ated. In the course of the conversation that followed, a lady, then 
the honoured mistress of one of them, described what she had suf- 
fered as she lay in bed with her first and new-born son in her arms, 
at hearing the shrieks and groans of the wounded who were drawn 
in waggons down that hill. The young husband and father was 
away, serving as a volunteer with many a noble comrade and trusty 
follower. 



380 



TWENTY-NINTH BULLETIN. 



King was called upon to declare for or against France. 
This was perhaps the bitterest moment of his life. The 
hope of deliverance which he had nourished for years, 
he must now resign for ever, and must surrender all the 
means so wisely and carefully prepared, and all the 
resources of his unhappy country, to a ruthless and 
treacherous foe. The Emperor Alexander had pro- 
mised him assistance, but these promises he dared not 
rely on; and, after some vain struggles to gain less 
grinding and humiliating terms, he signed the treaty 
(24th February) . 

But things were getting beyond the control of fee- 
ble kings, or even of powerful emperors. The elements 
and the spirit of man were about to decide the matter 
in their own way, and with an entire disregard of 
treaties. " All men lived/' says Steffens, u in that 
strange state of internal excitement, engendered by 
expectation of change, and hope of relief from a state 
of intolerable suffering, yet before the moment for 
decisive action is arrived. The 29th Bulletin had 
appeared, and the cautious tone in which it was writ- 
ten sought in vain to conceal the boundless disaster. 
In the more thoughtful minds, there awoke a presen- 
timent of a wonderful and eventful future, with all 
its hopes, and all its secret terrors. A half- articulate 
voice sounded at first as from afar out of the depths 



APPROACH OF THE CRISIS. 



381 



of men's breasts, and appeared to announce some- 
thing incredible. Even those who had always thought 
that mad ambition would find its limits in the bound- 
less and desert plains of Russia, could not believe in 
the horrible destruction of the victorious army which 
for fifteen years, with ever-increasing power, had ex- 
cited first admiration, then awe and alarm, and lastly 
stupifying terror, in peoples and their rulers. The 
event surpassed in wonder all the wonders of victory. 
But it was there ; — unquestionable accounts arrived, 
distant voices approached, the dark fateful word 
sounded clearer, and at last became a loud and warn- 
ing cry. Then the rushing waves overflowed the 
banks which had divided the minds of men. The 
long down-trodden germs of better thoughts sprang 
up ; the love for King and Fatherland awoke even in 
the most supine; and what, in the better sort, had 
been maintained amidst struggles of all sorts, often 
timid and doubting, like the faith of a pious soul, now 
showed itself in a confident zeal for action. And yet 
the moment for action was not come ; but it was al- 
ready ripe in thousands of minds, whose compressed 
emotions rose with elastic force. 

"In Breslau the ordinary cares for the day and 
its quiet occupations were lost sight of in the great 
event. The streets were thronged with people ; each 



382 



CALL TO THE NATION." 



awaited the order, all looked at each other, as if the 
commander who should call them together, and arm 
and lead them, must suddenly appear. 

" The first and greatest anxiety was for the King. 
It was feared that the French garrison at Berlin 
would, in their fury, commit some outrage against 
his person. It was thought expedient for his safety 
to remove to Breslau. He arrived, accompanied by 
the Royal children, by Hardenberg, and a number of 
ministers and generals. A countless multitude of 
people, particularly young men, flocked to Breslau ; 
every house was filled; Scharnhorst was there, Gnei- 
senau expected; one only thought filled the whole 
multitude, and yet a dark doubt hung over this 
thought. The King had disapproved General York's 
brilliant exploit, for which it appeared he was to be 
brought to trial. The French ambassador accompa- 
nied the King, and, spite of the universal enthusiasm, , 
it still seemed doubtful whether Prussia was to throw 
herself into the arms of Bonaparte and combat Rus- 
sia, or, combined with Russia, declare war on France. 

"In a day or two it was known that the King's 
' Call to the Nation 3 would be published ; but even 
then the enemy was not named, and the general 
anxiety was excited to the highest pitch/' 

We know, generally, how this " Call" was responded 



GEORGE KESSLER, 



383 



to by the nation. Fain would we let our philosopher 
go on to tell with what ardour it was hailed by the 
youth of Breslau, and give his naif and amusing 
account of his own transformation into a most awk- 
ward soldier, in which character he made the whole 
campaign. 

But we must enter into the details of domestic life 
before we can form any adequate idea of the circum- 
stances under which men prepared themselves for the 
final struggle ; and for this purpose w e will shift our 
scene. 



George Kessler was the son of the pastor of a most 
primitive village in Saxe Meiningen. His father died 
when he was a child"*. He studied law at the* Uni- 
versity of J ena, and was afterwards tutor in a noble 
family at Berlin, where he lived at the time of the 
battle of Jena. The following words from his jour- 
nal show the impression made on youthful and gene- 
rous minds by the state of Germany at that time. " I 
am tortured by the impossibility of getting away from 
this public calamity. If I try to pray, doubts arise in 

* One of the early incidents of his life was the dancing in a ballet 
of children at the rejoicings for the' birth of Princess Adelaide (1792), 
afterwards Queen of England. 



384 



GEORGE KESSLER. 



my mind ; I feel how feeble is my trust in Provi- 
dence. Hope I have none ; if I try to discover a 
way in which to offer up my life, I feel my impo- 
tence. This robs me of the power to supplicate ear- 
nestly that God would grant me a glorious death for 
Germany. Reason tells me that Germany is now no 
Fatherland; and yet my feelings contradict this truth. 
Nothing can console me for the nameless misery and 
infinite disgrace of this beloved land." 

In 1806 he entered the service of the State, and 
was in Berlin when the French army took possession 
of it. u Without seeing it," he says, " nobody un- 
derstands the meaning of the words, — an army has 
conquered, or an army is beaten. People are so 
stunned that they don't care to look beyond the 
present moment ; and if they are forced to look into 
the future, they start back affrighted." 

We pass over the intermediate years of gloom to 
the moment of deliverance. 

In 1811 Kessler married his cousin, a daughter of 
the Privy Councillor Heim. In 1812, as the crisis drew 
near, Kessler, who was at Potsdam, took his wife to 
her parents at Berlin, and prepared to join the army. 
He writes to a friend, " I trust there will be no de- 
bate in the family as to your brother. He who is not 
ready to risk himself now can never again have a voice 



a ( freiwilliger/ 



385 



in the country. Heim is determined to go; he will 
have a little assistance for his arms, etc., out of the 
money collected by the Government, to which I have 
added my mite — ten thalers ; that is the third of all 
I possess. If everybody would give in the same pro- 
portion, we might fit out a regiment. People here are 
in high spirits, and determined ; and I am the same." 
In this determination he was strengthened by his 
young wife, though at that moment she might have 
been pardoned if she had. used her influence to detain 
him near her. In the midst of the gloomy forebo- 
dings of the French garrison at Berlin, and the sup- 
pressed excitement of the inhabitants, she gave birth 
to her first child. Kessler hurried over to greet the 
mother and her new-born son, and returned to Pots- 
dam and to his comrades, who were preparing to take 
the field. 

The complete exhaustion of the country, and the 
poverty to which even the more affluent classes were 
reduced, come out strikingly as we read the details of 
the difficulty with which these brave young men got 
together the necessary implements of war. " My first 
anxiety is," writes he to his wife, " how I am to pro- 
cure arms and accoutrements. Ask Arnim, whether 
he cannot lend me a pair of pistols and a musket for 
the sendee." 



386 



EXHAUSTION OF PRUSSIA. 



The orders for the Landwehr of 17th March, 1813, 
were, that the men who entered it should provide 
their own uniforms. But experience soon showed 
that this was a mistake ; very few were able to do 
it without assistance, which the city accordingly un- 
dertook to furnish. The whole cost of the outfit, with 
exception of the clothing and linen collected by the 
patriotic zeal of the inhabitants, was eighteen thou- 
sand thalers ; and every man received one-third of a 
thaler (a shilling) on marching. 

Kessler writes to his wife : " Here we are, hard at 
work exercising, manoeuvring, firing ; you will see 
that I shall become a capital soldier, whom you will 
be proud of. I shall willingly encounter every danger 
and every suffering, in the thought that I possess in 
you and our son a Fatherland and a Future, for which 
I now joyfully sacrifice every other good." 

We are then initiated into all the difficulties of 
procuring himself a horse and accoutrements, and 
the various expedients for getting together a few 
thalers. We hear also of schemes for raising seven 
thalers — a guinea, — to buy a sword for another young 
6 Freiwiliiger/ who is ready to give his life to his 
country, but has nothing else to give. 

In the midst of these preparations came the news 
of the battle of Gross Gorschen, where Bliicher and 



A GERMAN WIFE. 



387 



Scharnhorst were wounded. The storm approached. 
Kessler received orders to hold himself ready to march. 
The same day his wife wrote to him : " The French 
are fortifying Berlin, and will defend it. My father 
has just been ordered to furnish spades, axes, etc. 
Farewell, dear husband ! stand firm, we shall certainly 
meet again." Well might he answer, the night before 
the march, "Your confidence, — the strength and 
clearness of your mind, are a profound comfort to me. 
Remain true to yourself, my Augusta, and Heaven 
will be merciful to us." 

On the 4th June she writes to him, " Unhappy 
as I am, often overwhelmed with grief at a separation 
which may last for years, reflection tells me how just 
and honourable was your decision ; and that I ought 
to thank Heaven which prompted you to co-operate in 
the great cause, — to do what honour and duty com- 
mand." Then comes a description of the sufferings of 
the men from hunger, thirst, and want of all things, 
and the efforts of their wives to raise money to send 
them. " You must have twenty Friedrichsdor," says 
she ; "if I have nothing left, I shall not starve." 

It is interesting to follow him through this unpa- 
ralleled campaign, but we can only recommend the 
narrative to our readers. After the battle of Denne- 
witz, in a letter written on his knee, he tells his wife, 

s 2 



388 



BATTLE OF DENNEWITZ. 



" Spite of the great hunger we have been suffering for 
several days,, our men stood under a shower of bullets 
admirably. It is a joy to see the courage, zeal, and 
fearlessness of the young soldiers. We have neither 
straw to lie on, nor roof to cover us ; but the heaven 
is clear, and the moon bright. Formerly I used to 
pray with shut eyes, but now I look up to the clear 
North star, and how differently one prays thus ! I 
think of you and our child, and thank God that I 
am permitted to take part in this noble conflict. 
You cannot think what a sublime feeling danger — 
the floating between earth and heaven — for justice 
and the good cause, awakens." 

His description of the battle of Dennewitz, the 
great achievement of the gallant and chivalrous Bii- 
low, is one to be read and deeply considered by all 
admirers of war, or by the still more odious and cri- 
minal crowd who speak of war with careless levity. 
" O God !" he writes, the following day on the battle- 
field, u what misery ! what horror ! The fury of the 
fight is nothing to this." And it was for having in- 
flicted this, that he saw " the troops, with their faces 
turned towards him, all kneeling and bare-headed, 
singing with one voice, c Herr Gott, dich loben wir ; " 
(We praise thee, O God) ! Nor were these thanksgiv- 
ings profane, for they had rescued their country. 



CIVIL LIFE DURING WAR. 



389 



All that we read of the free- corps is wonderfully 
earnest, spirited, and touching. Of such materials 
were formed those Prussian volunteer Jagers, with 
whose appearance Friedrich von Miiller was so struck 
as " they advanced decked with fresh green boughs, 
fall of youthful ardour, and singing the most inspir- 
ing war-songs." Among such did Theodor Korner 
sing and die. 

But war, even when undertaken in so holy a cause 
and with such self-devoting zeal, still leaves behind 
it somewhat of its own spirit of disorder and destruc- 
tion. Many a wife who received back her husband 
with rapture, after his long toils and dangers, had to 
make the painful discovery that the habits of a camp, 
and a life of continual excitement and reckless dis- 
order, are not easily exchanged for the quiet and dull 
routine of civil and domestic life. Many a family 
dates its ruin from the change wrought in its head by 
the glorious campaigns in which he took an honour- 
able share. Many a man lived to regret, in weariness 
and dejection, that he had not slept on the field of 
battle. This may not apply to men of steadfast cha- 
racter and settled habits, but it deserves to be counted 
among the innumerable evils attendant on war. 



390 



HEINRICH DAVID STUVE. 



" The more intimate features of those unparalleled 
times/' says an eloquent historian of them, " must be 
gathered from the records of individual lives." This 
is so strongly confirmed by our own experience, that, 
though at the risk of far outrunning our allotted 
space, and perhaps wearying our readers, we shall 
venture to lay before them two more brief sketches 
of individual lives deeply tinged with all the colours 
of the events that changed the aspect of the world. 
They answer the purpose we announced at the begin- 
ning of our article, exactly in proportion as the sub- 
jects of them belonged to the humbler stations and 
more peaceful walks of social life. It is not the con- 
sequences of War to those who share the glory or the 
spoil, that we are interested in showing. We want 
to see how it affects the peasant, the tradesman, the 
man of letters. And lest we should be suspected of a 
stupid and ignoble contempt of the virtue of courage, 
without which no other virtue is safe, let us add, that 
we have it at heart to show how peaceful peasants and 
thriving citizens, unwarlike and awkward scholars, 
could fight and die for the independence of their 
country. 

There is a little memoir of Heinrich David Stiive, 
Biirgermeister of Osnabriick, a most honourable and 
useful citizen, which shows to what an extent the 



ENTHUSIASM. 



391 



most remote corners, the most secluded communities, 
the most tranquil lives, of Germany, suffered under 
the universal scourge. Stuve was born in 1778. In 
the Introduction, his biographer speaks of the gene- 
ral longing for improvement and change, the vague 
and formless morality, the fantastic and perverted 
notions of virtue then prevalent, of which we have 
before spoken. We recur to this fact, as often as 
we find testimony to it, because we regard it as a 
very important element in this history : important 
not only to its early and disastrous period, but to 
that resurgence where so much depended on the na- 
tional susceptibility to enthusiasm. The same affec- 
tion of mind, which was weakness when expended on 
self, became strength, as soon as it was devoted to 
noble and generous objects'*. 

From the moment when the Comte d'Artois, in 

* This is peculiarly true of the women of Germany. The hero- 
ism of Madame Kessler and Madame Perthes is by no means sin- 
gular, nor even rare. Women of all ranks took their full share in the 
sacrifices made to country. It was impossible that there should not 
be among them a larger display of patriotic, as of any other, senti- 
ment, than is usual among our undemonstrative selves, and rather 
more emphase about the " Yaterlandsvertheidiger" than we may think 
consistent with rigorous taste ; but the earnest self-devotion of the 
women of Prussia entirely covers any exaggerations of manner by 
which it was accompanied. All were eager to lay something on the 
altar of country. They gave Lip money, time, comfort, strength, to 
mitigate the sufferings of then' countrymen. 

Among other examples was that of the beautiful and accomplished 
Madame Herz, the friend of Schleiermacher. After some deliberation 



392 



HANOVERIAN MASTERS. 



January, 1795, entered Osnabriick at the head of his 
small corps of emigrants ("ivho not infrequently 
served the enemy as spies") to the day of his death, 
— the day of the victory over the French at Liit- 
zen — Stiive's whole life was one continued effort, 
rarely successful, to avert from the fellow citizens 
who loved and trusted in him, some of the innu- 
merable evils that follow in the train of war. Though 
gifted by nature with a serene and cheerful temper, 
incessant care and grief and toil, not for himself, 
but for the city to whose franchises and institu- 
tions he was so ardently attached, made him pre- 
maturely old, and brought him early to the grave. 
First came the grievous consequences of the disso- 
lution of the Empire, — the secularization of the public 
property; then the destruction of the independence 
of the city by Hanover, and its occupation by Ha- 
noverian troops; so hated by the people, that the 
rumours of war and change which arose after the 

she decided that she could do most good by adopting the orphan 
daughters of men who had fallen in battle, and educatmg them to 
maintain themselves as governesses ; which she did, as I was told, 
with great success. 

At nearly eighty, when I knew her, she was still beautiful. She 
told me, with all the simplicity with which she could have mentioned 
any other historical fact, that when she was a mere child she was 
walking with her mother, and they met Frederic the Great on horse- 
back, attended by his aides-de-camp. He looked hard at her, drew 
rein, and taking off his hat, bowed to her. A singular homage to 
beauty from the aged warrior ! 



FRENCH MASTERS. 



393 



Peace of Amiens were listened to rather with hope 
than with fear ; a hope however soon rudely crashed. 
The French troops, with the disrespect of sacred 
things which then characterized them, marched into 
the town through the middle of the procession of the 
Corpus Christi, and immediately threatened it with 
pillage. It was Stiive's business to negotiate with 
the victors, — the hoped-for liberators. For his share 
in the liberation, General Drouet received 125,000 
francs. It is impossible to read the history of this 
war without admitting that sordid rapacity was one 
of its most striking characteristics. 

The people of Osnabriick had however been too 
often handed over to new masters, with utter disre- 
gard of their wishes, to retain attachment to any. 
The " light strangers" were agreeable to the women 
of the higher classes, and the great Fatherland, of 
which their city had almost ceased to form a part, was 
well nigh forgotten by all. But the fatal charm was 
accompanied by its antidote. The oppressions and 
exactions of the agreeable strangers at length reduced 
the citizens to such despair, that Stiive had great 
difficulty in keeping up their courage. 

In 1808, another change; the province was taken 
possession of for Prussia; and even the city which 
had not sworn fealty to any sovereign since the 

s 3 



394 



PRUSSIAN MASTERS. 



Thirty Years' "War, was now called on to take the 
oath of allegiance to that country. The Council 
debated seven hours before it could be brought to 
accept this new humiliation. The harsh and domi- 
neering tone of the Prussian administrators was 
more unwelcome to the inhabitants of the free city 
than any preceding form of tyranny. " They did 
not, like the Hanoverian commission, inquire any- 
thing about rights or laws, but solely about the eco- 
nomical and financial state of the country." The 
army was rough and overbearing; the officers, — 
boys or worn-out old nieiiy — despicable \ and deser- 
tion, the order of the day. It was a perfect picture 
of an effete government, founded, not on national or 
civic feeling, but solely on an administrative ma- 
chinery. 

Osnabriick was subjected to Prussia, only to be 
involved in her ruin : — 

"With such prospects before us," continues the 
author, " we saw the rise of the Confederation of the 
Rhine, and the fall of the venerable Roman Empire. 
On that had the freedom of Osnabriick rested, with 
that it hopelessly perished. It was a solemn warning 
of the degradation of Germany, from which the re- 
vival of a true German spirit alone could raise her. 
Hence the declaration of war by Prussia against 



FRENCH MASTERS. 



395 



France was welcome, for we thought we had endured 
the worst that could be endured. We all prayed for 
the success of the Prussian arms : for it was not the 
cause of Prussia (whom nobody loved) that was at 
stake, but of Germany." 

But on the 18th of October, the very day on which 
the Prussian authorities at Hanover summoned that 
deeply irritated country to prepare for its own de- 
fence, came the news of the battle of Jena, and the 
death of the Duke of Brunswick. 

The wretched and worn-out little land now fell 
under the dominion of Loison ; and forced contribu- 
tions, the disarmament of the citizens, the confisca- 
tion of English goods, followed of course ; the refrac- 
tory were threatened with death. Stiive, who had 
been thrown into a dangerous illness by all the agita- 
tions and fatigues he had undergone, was appointed 
to accompany a deputation from the kingdom of 
Westphalia to Paris. Here they were received in a 
friendly manner by the King, and introduced to the 
Emperor, who bad just dismissed the Gottingen de- 
puties with a rough rebuke for being too late, " He 
knew what their dispositions were ; but he would have 
them believe, that, till an English three-decker lay 
before Hameln, he would not give up Hanover ! " 
The Westphalian deputies saw with deep grief the 



396 



FRENCH MASTERS, 



overthrow of all their remaining institutions; and the 
uselessness of any attempt to prevent it. " If/' wrote 
Stiive to his wife, " all Germany is destined to be 
melted down in the furnace, how can we expect to 
escape? So Providence wills it." 

Osnabriick being incorporated with the kingdom 
of Westphalia, Stiive had now to witness new scenes 
of base exaction and base compliance at Cassel. His 
spotless integrity, his zeal and intelligence, were how- 
ever appreciated by the French government of the 
country, and he hoped to be useful to his fellow-citi- 
zens j " but his satisfaction in his work was' embit- 
tered : he was no longer the free magistrate of a free 
state, but oppressed with mechanical labour, and the 
executor of despotic measures, the odium of which 
fell in part upon him." The most hated of all was, — 
most justly, — the military conscription. " He to 
whom the lot fell might be accounted as lost." 

Already these wrongs and sufferings had produced 
their inevitable effect in the small corner of Germany 
we are considering. Osnabriick had learned by bitter 
experience, that no yoke is so galling, no burden so 
heavy, as that of the stranger. 

"In the summer of 1809, the victories of Austria 
awakened the warmest hopes, while the attempts of 
S chill and Dornberg in Hessen, and the daring re- 



A ROYAL SMUGGLER. 



397 



treat of the Duke of Brunswick, excited infinite 
sympathy." 

And as it is appointed that falsehood, and wrong, 
should defeat themselves, we find that "the care 
taken to suppress all intelligence caused the most 
absurd things to be believed," — thus adding to the 
excitement sought to be kept down. In like man- 
ner, the distress to which the country was reduced 
by the ruthless exactions of the invader, found a 
singular mitigation in the infraction of his prepos- 
terous edicts. " There was some compensation in the 
winter of 1808-1809, from the immense activity of 
the colonial trade (i. e. smuggling), which was car- 
ried on under the favour of the native authorities, 
and even of the King. Transports of more than a 
hundred waggons were often brought over the fron- 
tier escorted by an armed guard, and were safely con- 
veyed into the interior through Osnabriick. Large 
sums were thus put in circulation through the coun- 
try, and trade flourished to a degree never witnessed 
since. At length the public burning of English goods, 
or, as the people would have it, of empty boxes, and 
other rigorous measures imposed by France, put an 
end to it." 

" But another and a sudden change awaited Osna- 
briick. The northern part of the Kingdom of West- 



398 



STATE OF OSNABRUCK. 



phalia, Osnabriick included, was incorporated into the 
French Empire. Little as Stiive had liked the for- 
mer state of things, this complete severance from 
Germany struck him with the deepest grief ; and he 
rebuked his daughter with unwonted severity for 
lightly asking, what harm the change would do ? Yet 
in truth, were not Country the most sacred of earthly 
words, the following sentence would seem to justify 
the unthinking question: * ' The Westphalian troops 
marched out, first taking care to plunder the city 
treasury, and French troops marched in, making ex- 
orbitant, measureless exactions." 

Under the Westphalian Government, Stiive had 
had a salary which, though small, enabled him to live ; 
but under the French system there were no salaries, 
only "office expenses;" and in order to liquidate 
these, it was necessary to know how to conciliate pre- 
fects and secretaries-general ; an art the good citizen 
did not understand. 

And now the seed sown by Napoleon had borne its 
natural fruit, and began to be ripe unto the harvest. 
Osnabriick was traversed by the continual march of 
troops to Eussia ; the people were rendered desperate 
by taxes, contributions, and the clearness of pro- 
visions ; and all social and domestic intercourse was 
trammelled and embittered by the secret police, which 



GERMAN HUMANITY. 



399 



lurked behind every door and window. All scientific 
intercourse with Germany was cut off; books could 
only be got through Hamburg, and " inspectors of the 
bookselling trade were appointed, who learned with 
wonder that such things as German books existed." 

In the midst of the total ignorance of all that was 
passing, in which the people were kept, the news of 
the burning of Moscow fell like a thunderbolt upon 
them ; " alarmed and exasperated the French, and re- 
joiced the Germans, who here learned how men must 
fight who are determined to be free" The Emperor's 
retreat, or rather flight, the vague rumours, the state 
of the funds, and, above all, York's defection, which 
was attributed to policy far more than the fact war- 
ranted, raised the hopes of the country still higher. 

We shall finish this sketch of the sufferings of a small 
secluded province, by a fact honourable to the German 
character, honourable to human nature, and the truth 
of which rests upon various and unquestioned testi- 
mony. We have heard from eye-witnesses and actors 
in these fearful scenes, details which to our mind 
shed a far brighter glory on Germany than any that 
success in arms can give. 

"Whilst the Emperor talked of peace/' says the 
biographer, " and the capital expected it, war was seen 
in its most horrible aspect at Osnabriick. During the 



400 



GERMAN HUMANITY. 



whole of February and March, the sick and wounded 
from the Grand Army were continually arriving in 
the most appalling condition. Almost without clothes, 
or in wretched rags, with frozen limbs, covered with 
vermin, and afflicted with malignant fever, they tot- 
tered into the city leaning on sticks, or were brought 
in heaped upon waggons, often the living lying on the 
dead. Many days we counted above a hundred such 
waggons. Nothing whatever was done for them by 
the French authorities. At first they were deposited 
by force in quarters, but many lay in the streets un- 
able to crawl. At length the Town-house was fitted 
up as a hospital by contributions from the more af- 
fluent citizens, and food given to those who still needed 
it. A vast number died every day. Human misery 
here showed itself itself in its most terrific form, and 
in their sympathy with it, our citizens forgot their 
bitter hatred." 

Such forgetftilness was nearly universal. There is, 
we believe, no instance on record of the people of 
Germany taking advantage of the fearful and abject 
condition of their fallen foe, to avenge themselves of 
their accumulated wrongs. Even in Prussia, where 
the humiliation, the wrong, and hence the hatred, was 
the most intense, it not unfrequently happened that 
men were received, nursed, fed, and clothed in the 



GERMAN HUMANITY. 



401 



very houses they had plundered, by the very people 
they had outraged. Nor are these admirable proofs 
of the placability of a great and generous people, for- 
gotten by the just and generous in France. We have 
frequently heard the most cordial testimony borne 
by Frenchmen to the goodness of heart shown by the 
German people to an enemy utterly at their mercy. 

We have it on the authority of Count Alexandre 
de Laborde that, after the battle of Aspern, ~" a con- 
flict in which all the passions of the Austrians had 
been roused to the highest pitch, however strong 
the motives which they had to desire our defeat, 
they were not the less willing to succour our un- 
happy wounded, who covered the highroad, or crawled 
to the hospitals. Spite of the entire dearth of bread, 
the innkeepers and wine- sellers on the road took 
them in, fed them, and helped them along. A troop 
of country-people who were waiting at the door of a 
baker for their rations, gave each of them a portion 
of the food intended for his family, to allay the hun- 
ger of a waggonful of wounded that stopped before 
the door. A poor girl led a wounded soldier to his 
lodging, and carried his musket all the way. 

" Excellent people ! in whose hearts humanity was 
stronger than vengeance ! " 



402 



WILHELM GRIMM. 



Before we quit this part of Germany, we must give 
a brief reminiscence which comes recommended by 
the dear and honoured name of Grimm. There is a 
book, probably little known in England, called c Das 
gelehrte Hessen/ — a sort of biographical dictionary 
of the learned men, to whom that small but prolific 
State has given birth. The lives of the illustrious 
brothers Grimm are written by themselves ; and from 
that of Wilhelm we extract the following passage. 

u The day of the overthrow of all existing things 
will be ever before my eyes. On the evening of the 
last day of October I had seen with some alarm the 
French watch-fires in the distance ; but that Hessen 
should fall under a foreign yoke, I could not believe, 
till on the following morning I saw the French enter 
in full military splendour. Everything was soon ut- 
terly changed ; — strange men, strange manners, and 
a strange tongue loudly spoken in the streets. No 
town has undergone so many changes as Cassel ; and 
I often feel as if I had slept away several lives when 
I think what totally different states of things I wit- 
nessed then. As to the period of the Westphalian go- 
vernment, I must make one remark, which frequently 
recurs to my mind. I have often felt the shame of 
a foreign yoke ; of harsh and intolerable measures, 
and injustice of every kind, there was enough ; and I 



THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK. 



403 



well remember with what feelings I saw the poor men 
totter through the streets to execution ; but this state 
of things did not depress me as one much less in- 
tolerable would have done, had legality and order 
presided over it. But here the injustice sprang from 
the very circumstances,, which were in many respects 
more potent than the will of the despot. 

"The interest in the great events of 1809 was 
universal. It was in that period, the last wherein 
there was a gleam of hope of deliverance. The 
seat of war was not very distant ; the corps of the 
Duke of Brunswick-Oels and a division of SchilPs 
Hussars marched one after the other through Halle. 
I saw the Duke halt in the market-place ; and his 
earnest features, shaded by his long white eyebrows, 
assumed a momentary cheerfulness as he leaped from 
his horse, and stretched out his hand to a burgher 
of Halle whom he had formerly known. At that 
time his retreat seemed to us perfectly desperate ; we 
looked on him as doomed ; but he was right to trust 
to fortune*. 

# "When the Duke passed through Halberstadt," says Stein, "an 
immense concourse of people from the Harz, Brunswick, and Hal- 
berstadt, assembled and accompanied him with shouts of joy; and 
the graves of the Brunswickers who had fallen in battle were decked 
with flowers. A third of the prisoners and officers took service 
under him." 



404 



THE KING OF WESTPHALIA. 



u After the unfortunate peace was concluded, every- 
thing seemed lost, and the whole continent of Europe 
so enchained by the French power, that it could not 
move a limb without its leave. But in such appa- 
rently hopeless situations, trust in God's help springs 
up in the heart of man. In the autumn I went to 
Berlin, which was then stiller and more deserted than 
ever. The royal family were in Kcinigsberg. 

" In 1813 the end of the French domination drew 
near. Strange, how in such moments the external 
world seems to sympathize with the inner. The out- 
lines of the mountains and the country, even the 
forms of buildings, seem changed to our eyes, or in a 
strange light. The state of things was already known, 
when, a day or two before his departure, the King 
[of Westphalia] rode once more, with his usual bril- 
liant retinue, slowly through the streets. Before the 
window at which I stood, one of the red French 
Hussars who acted as guards, fell after the King had 
passed. He rode back, stopped, and I was able to 
observe him accurately. On his yellow, delicate, 
Italian face was a studied coldness, and his whole 
bearing expressed solicitude about appearance. He 
gave orders and rode on. The loss of his throne, 
acquired as in a dream, may have been annoying to 
him ; but he could have felt no real sorrow at leaving 



ATTACHMENT TO PRINCES. 



405 



a people for whom, though he did not seek to injure 
thenx, he could not have the feeling of a real sovereign. 
Besides, he was accustomed to changes of fortune. 
On his flight, two of his escort, who rode near the 
carriage, sang merrily a refrain out of the old opera 
' Hieronymus Knicker/ which was not ill suited to 
his position ; he inquired what it meant, and laughed 
when he heard the oracle, which, as he had learned 
no German, he had never understood. The restora- 
tion of Hessen was celebrated by us with the purest 
joy, and I never saw anything more touching than 
the solemn entry of the princely family. The people 
dragged the carriage, not with a noisy tumultuous 
excitement, but like those who are bearing home a 
blessing of which they have been long deprived. At 
that moment it seemed to me as if no hope for the 
future could be unfulfilled." 

That was the universal sentiment, from the plains of 
Hungary to the shores of the Baltic, from the moun- 
tains of Styria and Tyrol to flat and fertile Hessen ; 
peoples of all races and creeds, well or ill governed, 
all, as we find from testimony the most varied and 
unquestionable, received back their princes with the 
joy and the emotion of loving children. It is no 
part of our duty, and we are glad it is not, to inquire 
how this attachment was deserved, how it has been 



406 



FRIEDRTCH PERTHES. 



requited, or how much of it still subsists. These are 
questions which those must answer a qui de droit. 
We can only observe that if, by any means, that sen- 
timent has been lost, it is difficult to say who will be 
the greatest losers — princes or peoples; a bond of 
strength, a rallying-point in danger, is lost, which it 
will take centuries to replace; if indeed it be ever 
replaced. 



The last and most touching of our domestic pic- 
tures is drawn from the greatest of the noble Hanse 
Towns ; the northern nurses of Commerce, and her 
attendant Freedom. The history of Hamburg is 
marked by striking vicissitudes. More than once 
she must have succumbed under misfortune, had she 
not been upheld by those twin guardians of civili- 
zation. 

Among the Germans who were dazzled by the light 
which appeared breaking on mankind at the French 
Revolution, we mentioned Friedrich Perthes, then an 
obscure apprentice in a bookseller's shop in Leipzig. 
This young man afterwards became the most emi- 
nent bookseller in Hamburg, the friend of Niebuhr, 
the Stolbergs, Johannes von Miiller (before his apo- 
stasy), Gorres, and a number of the most distin- 



HAMBURG. 



407 



guished men in Germany. He married a daughter 
of Claudius, the author of the c Wandsbecker Bote/ a 
journal of considerable celebrity in North Germany. 

After the disasters of Germany and the invasion of 
Hamburg by the French, Perthes perceived that the 
liberty of which he had been so fervent a worshiper 
in his youth, was not to be brought to Germany by 
the armies of an invader; and, with an enthusiasm un- 
quenched by years, though directed to saner and more 
proximate objects, he set himself to the great work 
of resistance. From this he never for one moment 
flinched or paused. He risked life and health, and, 
what was more to him than either, the welfare and 
happiness of his incomparable wife and their eight 
children. He lost the whole of his property, and 
saw the fabric he had with the care and industry of 
ten years raised up, overthrown by the breath of a 
tyrant. The life of this excellent and distinguished 
man is one of the most interesting biographies of 
the period now under our notice. It affords a per- 
fect insight not only into the recesses of German life 
in those hard and troublous times, but into the very 
hearts and minds of the actors and sufferers. Nor 
can we imagine a more touching picture of love and 
faith, than that exhibited by Friedrich Perthes and 
his valiant and affectionate wife. 



408 



HAMBURG A FRENCH CITY. 



As our main object is to catch tones and glimpses 
of domestic life through the din and glare of war, 
we will give a few passages from the letters of this 
admirable couple, written during the worst days of 
their beloved Hamburg. 

Immediately after the battle of Jena, Mortier had 
taken possession of Hanover, and on the 19th No- 
vember entered Hamburg. Though it had nominally 
remained a free and sovereign city, it was occupied 
by French troops. French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, 
German troops, under French commanders, succeeded 
each other in rapid succession. Every trace of prac- 
tical independence was lost. 

In 1810, the three Hanse Towns, with all the 
north-western part of Germany, was declared an in- 
tegral part of the French Empire. " Hamburg, built 
by Charlemagne/' said the decree, " shall no longer 
be deprived of the hereditary happiness of belonging 
to his great successor." So Hamburg became a 
French city, and its inhabitants, French subjects. 

" Freedom of thought is the first conquest of the 
age/' declared Napoleon ; and accordingly, on the 5th 
of February, 1810, he published ordonnances restrict- 
ing the number of printers and booksellers in each 
department of the Empire to a small number of men 
whose devotion to his will was beyond suspicion. 



STATE OF HAMBURG. 



409 



The effect of these ordonnances was,, that not a single 
German book could be printed in any of the French 
part of Germany, or imported from any of the Ger- 
man part, without a permis from Paris. It seemed 
therefore that the business of bookselling was com- 
pletely at an end. 

The public revenues had no other source than trade, 
and the ancient trade of Hamburg was annihilated by 
the Continental System. "All that existed," says 
Perthes, " is destroyed. Trade, as it used to be car- 
ried on, is utterly impossible in the new world which 
is ordained in the councils of Napoleon. The ' ge- 
nial 9 decree against England is a proof of this. We 
are worse off than other towns, in proportion to the 
extent of our former commerce." 

Perthes individually lost all he had acquired in the 
extensive business he had created ; he estimated his 
loss in Mecklenburg alone at twenty thousand marks. 
Above three hundred Hamburg ships lay dismantled 
in the port, and the insurance companies suffered 
within three years a loss of twenty millions of francs. 
While incomes were diminished to an incalculable 
extent, the hundred and thirty thousand inhabitants 
of the city and territory were delivered over to the 
unheard-of pillage of the French Government, and 
the shameless extortion of the French authorities, 

T 



410 



STATE OF HAMBURG. 



among whom Bourrienne especially distinguished 
himself. From this single city, between the 1st No- 
vember, 1806, to the 1st November, 1809, the French 
extorted 14,381,311 francs. Bourrieime alone re- 
ceived bribes, from the city, to the amount of 558,000 
francs, from the merchants, of several millions ; and 
the table of a single General, calling himself disinter- 
ested, cost 200,000 francs in six months. Many of 
the wealthier citizens quitted the town, in order not 
to lose their all, and those who remained went about 
dejected and depressed, a prey to care and want. 
Trade and commerce were annihilated. Out of 428 
sugar-refineries, only one remained. All the cotton- 
printing establishments were utterly destroyed; and 
almost every branch of manufacture shared their fate. 
Numerous oppressive taxes and burdens were intro- 
duced, and levied in the most vexatious manner. The 
charitable institutions were stripped of their funds; 
land had hardly any value, and the interest of the 
public debt could not be paid. The once proud and 
wealthy city presented a picture of gradual decay and 
ruin. All these oppressive measures were carried into 
effect with the utmost brutality, and the inhabitants 
had not even the comfort of being secure from moles- 
tation in their own houses. Every hope seemed lost. 
In 1812 the citizens hardly dared to believe the vague 



EVACUATION OF HAMBURG. 



411 



rumours of reverses which crossed the official accounts 
of victories in Russia. On the 24th December, just 
as they were preparing with heavy hearts to celebrate 
Christmas, came, unexpected to almost all, the 29th 
Bulletin, which left no doubt of the annihilation of 
the French army in Russia. Christmas-eve was kept 
in Hamburg as it had not been kept for years. 

In February the people rose and tore down the 
French eagles ; but they had no leader and no mili- 
tary force, and the French garrison and authorities 
remained in possession of the city, though dispirited 
and alarmed. On the 12th March they marched out, 
"all very grave, — the officers pale as death," says 
Madame Perthes ; " I am beside myself," she adds, 
and know not what I am doing, since the great life- 
and-soul-burden was taken off us." On the 17th, 
Tettenborn, with his small band of Cossacks, entered 
Hamburg, and were received with transports of joy. 
" All the misery of the past," writes she, " and all 
the peril of the future, were lost in the joy of the 
present. Scarcely a German mile off was the enemy, 
and in a few hours might return and lay waste the 
city with fire and sword ; but nobody thought of him 
or his rage. The city presented a wonderful specta- 
cle to one who, after the tumultuous joy of the day, 
wandered alone through the streets in the mild spring 

t 2 



412 



HAMBURG BESIEGED. 



night. Everywhere deep stillness and careless repose ; 
— not a sentinel, not a patrol, not a policeman to be 
seen. The bright moonbeams fell on the houses with 
their sleeping inhabitants, and completed the picture 
of peace and security. The joy-wearied city had com- 
mitted itself to the protection of God alone." 

But Hamburg's security was short-lived. In May 
the French, haying been reinforced, returned, and the 
almost unarmed citizens had to defend their prema- 
ture conquest. They enrolled themselves in a sort of 
burgher militia, to the number of 7000; and these, 
with a few regular troops from Liibeck, formed the 
Hanseatic Legion. While this small and unwarlike 
band was in the outskirts of the city, endeavouring 
to defend it against their mighty foe, now advancing 
in great force on the left bank of the Elbe, their 
situation and that of their families may be gleaned 
from the following passage, written when the enemy 
were in sight of Hamburg. 

" Since the 9th of May," writes his wife, " Perthes 
has been one- and- twenty nights without taking off 
his clothes or going to bed. Every day I had to fear 
for his life, and he only now and then came home 
for half an hour. My three youngest children I had 
sent away, the four eldest would stay with me, T 
had no man in the house; all were on guard. All 



A CITIZEN AND HIS WIFE. 



413 



day long people came out and in, wanting food and 
drink ; for not one of our acquaintances had any 
household in town. I had filled our large sitting- 
room with sacks of straw, upon which day and night 
lay citizens who came in to rest. Day and night I 
was on the balcony, looking out to see whether 
Perthes or any of our nearest friends were among 
the wounded who were carried past." 

In the night of the 19th May the city was bom- 
barded. Perthes writes the next day to his wife, " I 
entreat you, from the bottom of my heart, command 
yourself, and place yourself and me in God's hand ; 
and next to Him, trust in me, and believe that what 
I am about to do I shall be able to answer before the 
judgement-seat of God." 

In the night of the 22nd there fell about five hun- 
dred grenades in the city ; but even then the spirit of 
the citizens was not broken. With unwearied activity 
and undaunted courage, day and night, Perthes went 
about exhorting them to persevere, and taking every 
possible means for the provisioning and defence of 
the city. 

When all chance of successful resistance vanished, 
Perthes removed his wife and children over the Da- 
nish frontier. He remained behind, but with what 
hopes these few words will show : — " I think it is all 



414 



A CITIZEN AND HIS WIFE. 



over with us, and I know not what more to do, but 
to trust constantly in God. Farewell, dear friend ; I 
go with my wife and seven children into the wide 
world, not knowing whether in a week we shall have 
bread. But God will help us." 

Nothing can be imagined more full of tender love, 
heroic devotion to country, and pious resignation, 
than the letters which passed between this noble pair 
during their agonizing separation. He, in hourly 
danger, and in certain ruin, fleeing from imprison- 
ment, or from death by the hand of the executioner ; 
she and her seven helpless children, to whom another 
was soon to be added, — fugitives in want of all the 
comforts and almost of the necessaries of life ; and, 
what was worse than all, in utter uncertainty of his 
fate. Yet never for an instant did she quail before 
danger, or cease to encourage and cheer her husband. 
In the beginning of June they met in a solitary gar- 
den-house on the shores of the Baltic, which had 
been lent to them by Count Reventlow. " Here we 
wept our fill," says she, " which in all our misery we 
had not been able to do before. At first I forgot the 
woes of the whole world, for joy that God had pre- 
served my husband ; I thought neither of past nor 
future, but thanked God continually." 

Perthes had lost everything he possessed. His 



THE PARTING. 



415 



shop and warehouse were sealed up, and his house, 
after being stripped of all moveables, was occupied 
by a French General ; he had no ready money for 
the support of his wife and children ; yet he writes, 
" Think not that I complain ;— he who has nothing 
to repent of has nothing to lament; but where, in 
what strange land, and how, I am to find bread for 
my wife and children, I know not as yet." The 
greatest grief of the honourable man was that he 
could not pay his debts, — u To injure others, — that is 
hard, very hard for me !" But worse was in store. 

There was a gathering of considerable men in 
Mecklenburg, and Perthes resolved to join them. 
" Now," she says, " the scales fell from my eyes. 
I knew what Perthes would, and what he must, do ; 
and the whole misery burst upon me. Perhaps it 
will be weeks, perhaps months, perhaps only in 
another world, that I shall see him again. For my 
dear husband is my soul full of grief and care and 
anxiety. Pray to God that I fail not." 

On the 8th July, under the dark firs in Count 
Reventlow's garden, he took leave of his wife, and set 
out along the dreary shore of the Baltic. Here a 
gleam of German sensibility to the influences and 
language of Nature falls across our gloomy path. 
" A little beyond Liitgenberg the country changes 



416 



THE ENGLISH FLEET. 



with wonderful rapidity. Everything is wild and 
stunted, and the inn at Brochel presented a picture 
of horror. Not a blade of grass was growing on the 
solitary waste ; the host lay in his coffin ; strangers 
went indifferently about the house ; even the poodle 
before the door was hardly to be called a dog, and, 
though intended to be black, could not get beyond 
the dull grey of the surrounding country. But 
after crossing a few hills one comes into another 
world. It is true there is neither tree nor bush, 
but it is covered with the finest wheat ; and between 
the green expanse of earth and the bright expanse 
of heaven, stretches out, connecting both, the deep 
blue sea." With such an imagination and such a 
heart for Nature no man is thoroughly destitute or 
unhappy. 

He determined to go to Rostock, to see what was 
to be done. " I have seriously weighed before God 
and my conscience," says he, " whether to follow the 
inward voice which drives me forth again into the 
tumult, and I find that I must obey it. Ambition 
does not lead me ; for whatever be the result, I shall 
return, if I live, to the business which I love. Caro- 
line will forgive me, and to my children I leave the 
inheritance of honour." 

At Heiligenhafen he crossed over in a boat to 



THE LONELY GARDEN-HOUSE. 



417 



Warnemunde. He passed a dark and stormy night 
on the sea ; and " at daybreak, immediately before us, 
lay Admiral Hope's ship, a colossus of 74 guns, sur- 
rounded by fo ur- and -twenty other ships under the 
English flag. Far beyond, the moon cast a silver line 
along the sea, and the sun a rayless red light. Never 
did I receive such an impression of grandeur as in 
this voyage." 

Through the whole of this dismal time we find the 
thoughts and prayers of the Hanse Towns turned to 
England, the last stay of despairing Europe. 

Though some rays of hope now began to gild the 
future, the present was still dark enough. Perthes 
was one of the ten Hamburgers who were declared 
enemies of the State, banished from the French 
dominions, and had all their property confiscated. 
ci Thank you from the bottom of my heart, my dear 
Perthes," writes his brave wife, " that your name 
stands amongst those of the ten enemies of the op- 
pressor ; that will be an honour and a joy to us as 
long as we live." 

And while the noble woman wrote so, this was her 
situation. Not far from a farm-house near the sea, and 
in the midst of a wood, was the small garden-house, 
consisting of one large room and two or three small 
chambers, in which Caroline and her children hao 

t 3 



418 



A CITIZEN AND HIS WIFE. 



found a refuge. Except the farmer, there was not a hu- 
man being near. From him they could get nothing but 
milk and butter. For bread, salt, soap, and all other 
necessaries, her sister and children had to go a league. 
In eighteen weeks they had not tasted white bread or 
meat. The kitchen was forty paces from the house ; 
the kitchen utensils consisted of four copper pots and 
a few plates. Except a few spoons and knives and 
forks, which she had brought, all the rest was done 
without ; and yet she says, " In comparison with 
many others, we arc rich." She was far advanced in 
pregnancy. The house, damp and exposed to the 
weather, made them all ill. There was an old horse- 
doctor in Eckernford, but no other medical man 
nearer than Kiel, five leagues off. 

Inexpressibly beautiful and elevating are some of 
her letters to her husband, written in this privation 
of all earthly comforts. 

" I have need of hope/' says she, " for the present 
is gloomy, and my situation is more solemn, and my 
desolation greater, than you, in your active and hope- 
ful life can know. Should I bide my time here, and 
remain without tidings of you, knowing you in con- 
stant danger, I shall not outlive it. 

" If I die, take care, if you love me, that my chil- 
dren, and especially the little ones, are committed to 



A CITIZEN AND HIS WIFE. 



419 



hands where they will learn to love God, before, and 
without, being conscious of it. That is the main 
thing, — all the rest is not suited to little children, 
whose hearts, in which so much lies sleeping, must 
be awakened first. 

" Dear husband, to fulfil your slightest wish, if I 
should have the misery to remain in this world with- 
out you, will be the only happiness I can think of. 
Tell me still more, that I may do all you wish." 

These, and many more such touching letters, and 
their no less touching answers, wandered about for 
months. Those of Perthes are full of tenderness and 
grief, but also of unswerving faith in God and the 
good cause. 

" That in times like these," says he in one of them, 
" in which the conflict of the Bad with the Good, of 
lies with truth, is so fierce, a man can do nothing 
unless he first lays it down that he must risk life and 
limb, property and safety, to bear his testimony to 
the Truth and the Right, you, my noble wife, know 
as well as I. I have courage and strength and hu- 
mility, and I am at one with God and myself. 1 
can pray as I never prayed before, and I pray much." 

And again : " About one thing I have never 
doubted ; that no people and no individual ought to 
endure a foreign yoke ; and in order not to endure 



420 



DAVOUST. 



it, they ought to sacrifice every earthly good. To this 
simple truth I held, and it has hitherto sufficed me. 
I had no call to torment myself about good, better, 
or best form of government." 

From the 7th of August to the 2nd of October 
Madame Perthes never heard from her husband, and 
knew not if he was alive or dead. 

The greater part of Germany had for some time 
been rid of the French, but Davoust still maintained 
himself in Hamburg. He was confined to the city 
and its immediate neighbourhood by General Ben- 
ningsen, who had succeeded General Woronzoff in 
the conduct of the siege. What Davoust did, may 
perhaps find an apology in the position of a besieged 
general ; but how he did it, can only be explained by 
the stupid rage of a barbarian. Boundless exactions, 
robbery of the Bank, and barbarous oppression of the 
citizens, were the first steps ; then, from Christmas 
time, all the suburbs and villages, all the beautiful 
country-houses on the Alster, were burnt down after 
a notice of only eight hours. Twenty thousand souls 
were driven out of the city; first the young and 
strong, as dangerous, then the old and weak, as su- 
perfluous; the children out of the Orphan House, 
the infirm out of the almshouses, the criminals out of 
the prisons, were driven outside the gates, and there 



A CONQUERED COUNTRY. 



421 



left to their fate ; and, on the afternoon of the 30th 
of December, Davoust ordered the Hospital, contain- 
ing eight hundred sick and insane persons, to be 
cleared. The following day it was set on fire. 

While bands of drunken soldiers fought with the 
sick for their few possessions, plundered the neigh- 
bourhood, set fire to the houses, and committed out- 
rages and horrors of every kind, the hospital was, by 
the great exertions of the worthy citizens, entirely 
cleared. But the mortal terror of the wild tumult, 
and the bitter cold of January, cost nearly six hun- 
dred of the expelled sick their lives, within the next 
few days. The news of these horrors, which reached 
Perthes and his friends assembled in Flottbeck, froze 
their blood ; nor was the misery which they had be- 
fore their eyes less intense. 

For leagues around, the country lay like an ash- 
heap, covered with ice and snow, out of which nothing, 
appeared, but here and there a broken wall or a charred 
tree. Women and children wandered seeking the 
remnants of their goods in the midst of the ruins ; 
and still, night after night, the sky was red with the 
glare of burning houses. In the streets of Altona, in 
all the high-roads and villages of the neighbouring 
country, half-frozen, shivering beings were seen, im- 
ploring clothing, food, and shelter, in the icy winter 



422 TWICE RUINED, TWICE RESTORED. 

nights ; and on the roads to Bremen and Liibeck were 
long trains of old and sick, of women and children 
escorted by Cossacks, going to seek some help in the 
sister cities. " You will have heard of the misery 
of this country/' writes Perthes to his wife, " but no 
words can suffice to describe it ; all the wretchedness 
that I have endured and witnessed in the last three 
years is nothing compared to this ; how will it end ? 
May God shorten it, and lead us through it ! " 

Much was done, much was given, from far and 
near, to alleviate this unheard-of misery ; " but all 
our efforts," adds he, u can do little, — the Present is 
beyond our aid \ may God save the Future ! We 
must summon every power we have to preserve the 
unhappy city and its inhabitants from a ruin out of 
which there is no recovery." 

This was written in the first days of 1814. Who 
that has not reflected on the wondrous creative and 
restorative powers of peaceful industry, would believe 
that, within the forty years which have elapsed since 
the noble city was reduced to this extremity by a 
ruthless conqueror, she not only once raised herself 
into more than pristine wealth and importance, but 
had afterwards to struggle out of the devastation 
caused by fire, and a second time reared her head 
more vigorous, more stately, than before ? 



THE RETURN HOME. 



423 



The day on which Madame Perthes and her chil- 
dren were to leave Blankenese and return to Hamburg 
drew near. " Suddenly the white flag waved from St. 
Michael's tower, and now those who had been driven 
out streamed from all sides towards the city. We 
lived near the Elbe^ and could see all who returned 
from Hanover. Among others was a whole carriage- 
full of little children whose parents had died in the 
hospital at Bremen, Numerous bands of starved 
creatures, with their many children and their few 
goods, passed our windows ; and wonderfully great 
and moving was the visible love to house and hearth, 
although most had nothing to expect there but misery 
and want. As the poor people touched the land, they 
broke green twigs from the trees, and old and young, 
to the smallest child, had boughs in their hands, and 
thanked God, amidst cries of joy and tears of grief, 
for the deliverance from the general evil ; though well 
knowing that each carried with him his own particular 
share/' 

On the 12th of May, the French evacuated Ham- 
burg ; on the 26th, the former Senate met ; " and 
from henceforward/' says the excellent citizen, "I 
can take no other part in public affairs than that 
which my rights of citizenship assign to me." 



424 



THE PEOPLE'S WAR. 



These are some of the episodes of this remarkable 
war, and they are sufficient to justify its claim to the 
name given to it by the Germans themselves, of the 
People's War. Perhaps no other ever penetrated so 
deeply into every recess of civil and domestic life. 
We have come to the end, not of our materials, but 
of our space, and, we fear, of our readers' patience. 
We have no intention of following the course of the 
victorious armies, as step by step they swept the op- 
pressor from their soil. The sufferings of the French 
armies, so far from affording us any satisfaction, are 
among the heaviest charges we have to bring against 
the man who used them as tools and delivered them 
over to destruction. We utterly disclaim any inten- 
tion of pointing the moral of our history against a 
particular nation. If the many fine qualities of the 
French people are mingled with an excitability which 
has made them more easily the dupes of ambition 
and the instruments of violence than some other 
peoples, it must be remembered that they have only 
pursued with greater eagerness that which all nations 
and ages have agreed to call glory, and have rewarded 
with their highest admiration. The important thing 
is to correct the morality handed down to us from 
barbarous times ; and to show that restless ambition, 
craving for excitement, love of the sort of celebrity 



GLORY. 



425 



called glory , contempt of peaceful men and peaceful 
pursuits, and disregard of what is most holy and most 
awful on earth — the affections and consciences of 
men — are, under whatever name, pretext, symbol, or 
banner, deserving of nothing but the eternal execra- 
tion of mankind. 

Nor in truth do we utterly despair of the general 
diffusion of this sentiment. Facts and appearances 
of great significance are daily presenting themselves 
in that direction ; and people are learning more and 
more to distinguish between the solemn duty, and the 
pure and luminous renown, of a defender of his coun- 
try, and the fierce and lurid glare of a conqueror's 
fame. This England of ours, whom the very women 
and children born on her noble bosom would rise to 
defend, has been the first to denounce the crime of 
aggressive war. The further we advance toward civi- 
lization, the more do we become aware of the ardu- 
ous conquests we have yet to make at home, before 
we can attain to anything deserving the name ; and of 
the paramount importance of the victories over barba- 
rism, ignorance, and crime, which we have to acnieve. 
In contemplating these, territorial or numerical ag- 
grandisement not only appears in all its barrenness 
and insignificance, but as the greatest obstacle to the 
grand and beneficent achievements for which all our 
energies and resources are not too much. 



426 



WAR OF LIBERATION. 



These considerations are gradually forcing them- 
selves upon the more civilized nations of Europe, and 
will gain strength with every advance in civilization ; 
till the notion that glory attaches to the ruling over 
men against their will, or advantage, to the possession 
of tracts of desolated country, will be left to the bar- 
barians of whom it is worthy. 

We need not fear that the heart of man should 
ever be so drained of its warmest and reddest blood 
as to cease to beat high at heroic devotion to Country, 
loyalty to the great institutions and traditions that 
make Country what it is, or contempt of danger and 
death for a great cause. 

We see what the Germans became ; of what hero- 
ism the least martial of their men, the tenderest and 
most timid of their women, were capable, when the 
object was to deliver their country. 

In endeavouring therefore to draw together some 
of the more striking incidents which marked the War 
of Liberation, our object has not been so much to ex- 
hibit the faults or crimes of the victors, as the pecu- 
liar cliaracter of the resistance provoked, and to hold 
it up to admiration and respect. The profound sense 
of the immorality of the oppressor, and of his instru- 
ments and means of governing, and the resentment 
awakened by the insults offered to all that they them- 



RECOLLECTIONS OF AN EYE-WITNESS. 427 

selves had been accustomed to hold in honour, were 
among the strongest motives to engage in a conflict 
which they knew must be deadly, and which many 
engaged in with no other hope than of an honourable 
grave. In all parts, among all classes, we find these 
sentiments. 

Nothing so much contributed to lower the French 
people in the eyes of Germany as their blind and 
slavish submission to a man who poured out their 
blood like water ; who saw unmoved the flower of his 
people swept off time after time, rather than relin- 
quish one scheme of ambition or revenge, or one 
dream of intoxicated self-love. If the attachment of 
Germans to the princely houses with which their own 
history and condition had for centuries been identi- 
fied, was " canine," what, they said, was this ? 

We have heard this sentiment expressed often ; 
never with greater force and vivacity than by one 
now no more, who in her early youth had witnessed 
the horrors of which beautiful Dresden was so often 
the scene. 

" My hatred to the French for what I saw them 
inflict," said she, " was nothing compared to my con- 
tempt for what I saw them endure. In 1812 I had 
seen them pass our door on their way to Russia, — tens 
of thousands of gallant men, never to return • the 



428 RECOLLECTIONS OF AN EYE-WITNESS. 

magnificent regiments, seen like a pageant, once and 
never again; the Neapolitan guard, "tall as trees 
Poniatowsky's splendid Ulans, in their gorgeous crim- 
son uniforms ; all gone, vanished ; not a wreck 
marched back through the gates they had left full of 
confidence and daring. And he who had led them 
to destruction? The heart turns from the ignoble 
story. The sledge in which Napoleon returned from 
Moscow drove to the door of the French minister, 
opposite the Kreuzkirche ; the minister was in bed, 
— he rose, and the Emperor threw himself into the 
warm place his servant quitted." 

During the Congress of Erfurt, as our readers pro- 
bably remember, Napoleon had sent for Talma, Mdlle. 
Georges, and the whole troop of the Theatre Fran9ais. 
In August, 1813, while Napoleon had his head- quar- 
ters at Dresden, the same troop acted there. The 
first night of their performance, tickets were issued 
to all the officers above the rank of captain. The 
pit was one dense mass of brilliant colours, gold and 
silver embroidery, and all the gorgeous trappings of 
war; the boxes were filled with Saxon and French 
ladies, glittering in diamonds, and gay with feathers 
and flowers. 

(C At the moment," said the narrator, " when the 
carriages were setting down their gay burdens at the 



THE TWO PROCESSIONS. 



429 



doors of the theatre; at the moment when Napo- 
leon^ s own carriage, escorted by a guard of thirty- 
lancers who concealed him from the eyes of the 
people, drove to the splendid scene ; at that moment 
I saw another procession move over the bridge from 
the Neustadt, and meet the stream of imperial festi- 
vity. I saw a long train of peasant women crowding 
along on wheelbarrows the wounded soldiers of the 
Old Guard. Carts and horses had long ago been out 
of the question ; the fields were drained even of men ; 
and in this torturing way were these gallant veterans 
brought, shrieking with agony, to the hospital." She 
covered her face with her hand, shuddering, and added, 
— C( When I saw the bodies of shrieking, suffering 
men — men who suffered for him — crowded along the 
streets like the vilest carrion, by poor innocent country- 
women who were dragged from their homes and chil- 
dren and forced into so heart-sickening a service, — 
when I saw that, and afterwards entered the theatre, 
and heard the applause with which the Emperor was 
greeted; when I continued to see that he was the 
object of the enthusiastic attachment of the very men 
whose lives he evidently reckoned at less than the 
least of his desires ; when I saw that they had not 
sufficient moral dignity to resent, or even to feel, the 
insult offered to human nature in their persons, — a 



430 



THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW. 



scorn of them took possession of my mind, which will 
never be effaced. 

" Of the conduct of the French army to us Saxons, 
we had no reason to complain ; they w T ere here as allies, 
and the strictest discipline was observed. While not 
a single inhabitant of Dresden was known to perish 
from starvation, two hundred French soldiers died of 
hunger in our streets. I myself saw two fight for a 
raw bone which they found in a dungheap; — but they 
attempted no violence against the natives. Typhus 
fever broke out in the hospitals, and we saw the naked 
bodies pitched out of the windows of a third story 
into the street, to be piled upon baggage-waggons, 
and taken out of the town to be buried. Some were 
said to be seen to move. I need not enumerate more 
horrors. You will now understand my feeling about 
the French/' 



The retreat from Moscow has been so often de- 
scribed, that it seems a useless and ungrateful task 
to recal the imaginations of men to a scene unparal- 
leled in horror ; but it cannot be too often repeated, 
that to such scenes the love of war and conquest 
naturally lead. If this exceeded every other in its 
gigantic suffering, it was only in proportion to the 



THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW, 



431 



gigantic ambition and rage for warlike excitement 
which preceded it. 

It is also useful to contemplate the so-called heroes 
of the war stripped of all the glitter of success and 
victory — to see their brutified indifference to human 
suffering, their cowardly selfishness, their base rapa- 
city. Even after death in every terrific form had 
swept away hundreds of thousands, avarice survived in 
breasts which seemed dead to everything else. Dying 
men, covered with rags, were seen dragging sacks of 
plunder with the last tenacious grasp of a desperate 
resolution. 

Nor ought it to be forgotten that this wretched 
remnant of the great army, half-naked, starved, fro- 
zen, unarmed, crawled through a country which in 
1812 had been the scene of their exactions, plunder, 
and insolence, when they traversed it as allies, 
" One hint from a single man in authority/' says 
Arndt, "and not one Frenchman would ever have 
gone from the Niemen to the Pregel. No such hint 
was given." 

" Here/' says an eye-witness, " limps the cuiras- 
sier without horse, without sword, his frozen feet 
bound with matting and rags, — he who six months 
before had torn from the miserable peasant his last 
loaf, split it in two, and scooped out each half to 



432 



THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW. 



form a sort of sabot, in which he walked about. 
There another, whose hands were never weary of 
clutching plunder, holds out his miserable frozen 
stumps, and receives with his mouth the gifts ex- 
torted from pity. 

" The whole country is desolate, — houses unroofed, 
villages burnt ; even the poor animals feel the war. 
The horses and cows are half-starved. The way is 
strewed with dead bodies, mostly (oh shame and 
woe!) Germans (Bavarians). 

" It was a horrid sight to see so many human 
beings, greeted at their birth with love and joy, mi- 
nistered to with tenderness, still in the bloom of 
youth, torn from parents and country by a remorse- 
less tyrant, dragged along like brute beasts without 
the least show of decency, their heads downwards, 
often knocking against the ground, their whole bodies 
deformed with filth, vermin, and disease. 

" I saw a prisoner, pale and bent double, limping 
before me, stop, and look attentively at the dead body 
of one of his comrades, and then stir it with his stick. 
It was as if he anticipated his own fate. At this mo- 
ment the sound of singing came from the hill, and 
presently priests in solemn vestments and sorrowing 
friends in black accompanied a coffin to its last rest- 
ing place, with all the pious decencies of Christian 



DELIVERANCE AT HAND. 



433 



burial, while sledges were driving past heaped with 
the naked and disfigured bodies of the soldiers. So 
differently does man go to his last home!" 



From the time of this retreat the fate of Europe 
was decided. Germany wanted nothing but union 
and determination to free herself from the load that 
had so long crushed her, and these, born of suffering 
and desperation, were at length matured by hope. 
"The hatred of the French yoke, which had been 
rather exasperated than repressed by all the various 
measures of severity, coercion, cunning, and corrup- 
tion that had been resorted to, became more and more 
bitter. Napoleon, by his invasion of Russia, had 
brought a far more wasting ruin on his own army, 
than he had ever done on that of any other country ; 
and Germany began to feel that her hour of de- 
liverance was at hand. The whole existence of her 
population was merged in the one feeling of return- 
ing freedom, and all the weight of years of suffering 
fell at once from their resuscitated minds. From all 
the depths in which it had been forced to hide itself, 
arose the expression of genuine, intense and long-sup- 
pressed emotion, and broke forth in one loud shout 
of enthusiasm." 

u 



434 



BATTLE OF LEIPZIG. 



But it was not till after tlie battle of Leipzig that 
confidence, crushed by years of defeat and disgrace, 
returned. The character of that decisive battle, and 
of its effect on the people of Germany, is thus de- 
scribed by one who took part in it. 

" In the conflict waged by Napoleon against the 
independence of Europe, it was on the field of Leip- 
zig that he suffered his first great and irremediable 
overthrow. The destruction of his army in Russia 
a year before had profoundly shaken his power in 
Germany ; but this last reverse made France totter, 
and threatened her very existence. 

" The defeat of Napoleon in the three days' battle 
of Leipzig was not accomplished by a single and 
equal antagonist, but by the fraternal co-operation 
of whole peoples. And the consequences of that 
important victory manifested themselves rather in a 
strongly excited feeling of nationality, than in an ex- 
terminating pursuit of the enemy in his long retreat 
from the centre of Germany to the Rhine, — a pur- 
suit not only practicable, but quite in the spirit of 
a great and decisive warfare. 

" We regard the insurrection of the collective Ger- 
man people against their oppressor as the immedi- 
ate consequence of the victory of Leipzig. Prussia 
had entered the lists at the beginning of this war as 



CROSSING THE RHINE. 



435 



champion of Germany, for the recovery of the most 
precious possession of a people — independence. She 
was now followed by the whole of Germany. 

" The German States sacrificed the immediate ad- 
vantage of the great victory they had gained, to the 
far higher object of achieving in common the reco- 
very of their freedom, and thus awakening in the peo- 
ple the consciousness of their unity and strength"*." 



It was our purpose to bring our narrative, if so 
fragmentary a work may deserve the name, down to 
the Liberation of Germany. We are arrived at the 
point where that is no longer doubtful ; and though 
we have left a thousand peculiar features of society 
during this great movement untold, we must hasten 
to a conclusion. 

"We will watch the allied Germans as they cross 
that sacred river through which " flows the stream 
of old tradition," — and then we will leave them. 
From the moment they quit the soil of Germany 7 
our concern with them is at an end. 

On the first day of the year 1814, the first division 
of the Prussian army, and the Russian c©rps under 

# Gesckichte des Feldzuges von 1814, von Major v. Damitz, 1842. 

IT 2 



436 



RESULTS. 



General Langeron, crossed the Rhine at Caub. It 
was half-past two in the morning before the arrange- 
ments were made, and Major Count Brandenburg 
and Captain v. Arnauld, with two hundred fusileers, 
got on board the boats and opened the passage over 
the Rhine. The night was starry and clear, but the 
valley was in shadow, so that the movements there 
could not be seen. The landing was ordered to take 
place close to the French sentinels, without the least 
noise. " The passage lasted a quarter of an hour. 
The light in the custom-house was still burning, and 
no change was perceptible, so that it was clear the 
enemy had notperccived our movements ; not a shot 
fell; all was still; till the Prussian fusileers, leaping 
from the boats, contrary to orders, greeted the left 
bank of the Rhine with a loud hurrah 

Nor can we enter into the question of the results 
of their successes, or of the degree to which the 
high hopes then excited have been fulfilled. The bio- 
grapher of "Wilhelm von Humboldt justly- remarks : 
"That a certain retrograde movement afterwards took 
place, was natural. During the war the public spirit 
had become so powerful and excited, so many soaring 
hopes had been raised and disappointed, that a calm 
observer, especially one intimately acquainted with 
# Damitz, Feldzug von 1814. 



AFFINITIES. 



437 



the state of Prussia, might have seen the ebb comings 
that must follow such a flood." 

This is the natural consequence of all periods of 
high excitement, especially among a people so little 
prone to look realities in the face as the Germans. 
But if all was not obtained that was hoped, the one 
thing without which a nation can hardly be said to 
exist — National Independence — was obtained. 

It is our comfort to believe, with the excellent 
Perthes, that " a race which has so raised itself will 
not sink again, but will go from strength to strength." 

With Germany, and with the kindred nations of 
Scandinavia, the nearest sympathies of Englishmen 
must ever dwell. There are a thousand points on 
which we (often unconsciously) meet, in those re- 
gions of profound sentiment and conviction which 
lie far below the superficial structure of social life, 
or the conventional peculiarities of manners. No 
one can have enjoyed much and intimate converse 
with Germans, without feeling that the deeper they 
descended together to these hidden fountains, the 
more sure they were to find that they drew from a 
common well-head. 

May even this humble attempt to bring into a 
compacter and more accessible form some of the 
many recitals of the fortunes of Germany during half 



438 



THE END. 



a century, — of the faults which prepared her fall, and 
the virtues which achieved and adorned her restora- 
tion, — contribute to strengthen the sympathies of 
which it is an imperfect expression ! 



APPENDIX. 



I. — Page 15. 

Grimm, the well-known correspondent of the Duke of 
Saxe Gotha, was one of those who lived to witness a com- 
plete transformation of manners. It is impossible to con- 
ceive, within the range of civilized life, two modes of exist- 
ence more different than the one which Jacobs describes as 
prevailing at Gotha, and that which his countryman Grimm 
witnessed at Paris. 



II.— Page 32. 

"Richardson was the inventor of a conventional morality. 
His moralizing and sentimental heroes and heroines had al- 
ready been brought into fashion in Germany by Housseau, at 
the same time with the idyllic dreams of Gessner. The Eng- 
lish novel, alas ! was, even as at present, the only picture 
and the only instructor of a giddy life, in the case not only of 
many individuals, but of whole ranks and classes. The novel 



410 



APPENDIX. 



shows, like other kinds of literature, the progress of the age 
from the natural to the fictitious ; — from true and practical 
morality to moralizing and effeminacy, from real feeling to 
affected sentimentality." — Schlosser, Hist, of Eighteenth Cen- 
tury, vol. ii. 



III.— Page 35. 

The following is the description of the state of the book- 
trade in Germany at the end of the last century, extracted 
from the 'Life of Perthes,' published in 1848. 

" Up to the end of the last century, the German book-trade 
was confined to the north-west of Germany. In the south-west, 
from Vienna to Regensburg, with the exception of some few 
who dealt in works of ascetic Catholicism, there were none ; 
from Regensburg to Tyrol, only one, in Augsburg. JNurn- 
berg supplied all the small demands of this extensive dis- 
trict. There were flourishing trades in Tubingen and Hei- 
delberg ; but the whole north-west, in which Minister was 
the last literary advanced post, was scantily provided for by 
Frankfurt. On the other hand, in the whole north-east of 
Germany, the bookselling trade had for some time made a 
great stride, though toward the end of the last century it was 
pretty nearly restricted to the sale of scientific works. Newly 
published books were not sent to the various booksellers of 
Germany, but the publishers who had any considerable busi- 
ness met together at Easter and Michaelmas in Leipzig, and 
each brought a catalogue of his newly published works with 
him. They called on each other, showed each other their 
lists, and, after much discussion on the merits and prices of 
their books, agreed on the number of copies they would take 
one from the other. As what they had once taken could not 
be returned, the greatest caution was used ; the consequence 



APPENDIX. 



441 



of which, was, that the booksellers, thinly scattered about 
the country, were often unable to execute the orders of their 
customers. Application had then to be made to the pub- 
lisher, but at a great expense of time and money. To obviate 
these difficulties, a few enterprising men, first in Frankfurt 
and then in Leipzig, established warehouses for the reception 
of all the considerable works published in Germany, where 
every bookseller could obtain what he wanted." 

Bohme, the master of Perthes, had a large commission 
business, as it was then called, of this sort. Perthes was 
bound apprentice to this singular man in 1787. The terms 
of his indentures, and the history of his hard and rigorous 
servitude, are very curious illustrations of the manners of 
the time. 



IV.— Page 88. 

In the ' Life of George Kessler ' we find mention of the 
"gnadige Hockkuss " (the gracious petticoat-kiss), to which 
he, a boy of ten years old, and his companions, were admit- 
ted, after the ballet which they performed on occasion of the 
birth of Princess Adelheide of Meiningen. 



V.— Page 108. 

" Wer den Zustand der Bayerschen Verwaltung wurdigen 
will, findet davonin den Denkwurdigkeiten des Hitters K. H. 
von Lang ein nach der lebhaften scharfen Natur des Ver- 
fassers hoch gefarbtes aber gewiss in allem Wesentlichen 
wahres Bild. 



' Wie die franzosische Constitutionsmacherei in Bayern 

TT 8 



442 



APPENDIX. 



nachgeahmt ward, ist in des Hitters von Lang Denkwiirdig- 
keiten erbaulich zu lesen." — Leben des Freiherm von Stein, 
vol. ii. p. 596. 



VL— Page 110. 

Steffens, whom no one can suspect of indifference to free- 
dom, speaks of the delight with which he first contemplated 
the " fiirstlichen, blirgerlichen, anitlichen, hauslichen Leben 
der noch gliicklichen kleinen Staaten." 



VII. — Page 110. 

"Wise men like Humboldt did not require impossibilities 
for Germany (at the Vienna Congress). He regarded with 
liking many things which fast-sailing patriots would have 
thrown overboard. He acknowledged the necessity of a 
strong bond of union among Germans ; but he did not ac- 
knowledge strict national unity to be the sole salvation of a 
people whose character is unsuited to it, and who are unpre- 
pared for it. Even those small States, whose existence is an 
anomaly, and which are hardly suited to our present condi- 
tion, Humboldt took under his protection ; and on grounds 
which, if we look to the past, may be defended. In the most 
melancholy period of our history, it was exactly these small 
points that sent forth buds of the Beautiful and the Good, 
which were no longer to be hoped for from the greater masses. 
What do we not owe to the hereditary division of Saxony P 
what, to so small a country as Weimar ?" 



APPENDIX. 



443 



YIII.— Page 121. 

Kessler's Life contains a very curious account of the vil- 
lage of Herpf, in Saxe-Meiningen. It not only illustrates the 
manners of the period, but shows how great were those cha- 
racteristic varieties in the structure of Germany society which 
rendered, and the vestiges of which still render, Germany the 
most interesting of all countries to travel in. 



IX.— Page 125. 

"Has Hungary a constitution? A tumultuary Diet, the 
exemption of a class from all taxation and contribution, the 
serfage in its harshest form of three-fifths of the nation — form 
no constitution." — Stein, from a letter to Hardenberg, dated 
1810. 



X.— Page 131. 

The following illustrations of the manners of Germany in 
the last century show that Lang's descriptions are not such 
broad caricature as they seem. They are extracted by S chlosser 
from the journal of a tour of pleasure made by Count Lynar 
in 1731, and from Xeyssler's Travels, of about the same date. 
Count Lynar visited Wurtzburg and Bamberg at the time in 
which a member of the family of Schonborn was bishop. 

' ' The bishop kept up a complete court in Wurtzburg and 
Bamberg, where he had at least thirty chamberlains and six- 
teen sets of carriage -horses. At table, the prince-bishop sat 
at the top on an arm-chair covered with crimson velvet and 



444 



APPENDIX. 



adorned with golden tassels : the table was covered twice with 
fourteen different dishes each time, and as many afterwards 
for the dessert : nine pages stood round and set on the dishes, 
which were brought up by bearers. The bearers wore boots 
and spurs, and the sling of a carabine over their shoulders ; 
they were preceded by one officer with his hat under his arm, 
and followed by another." 

We are made acquainted with the kind of morality which 
prevailed at these spiritual courts by Keyssler's Travels. 
At the court of Wurtemberg, which was famous for the qua- 
lifications of its drinkers, Keyssler found a Wttrzburg privy 
councillor and minister whom none of the Wurtembergers 
could match. He relates that this spiritual minister was in 
the habit of drinking ten quarts of Burgundy in a day, and 
boasted that there were four or five others at the court of 
Wiirzburg who could keep him company. 

At the time of Count Lynar's journey, Prince- Arch- 
bishop Clement resided at Bonn. From the description 
of the entertainments at the court of Cologne, it appears 
that nothing but foreign customs were to be seen there. 
Archbishop Clement maintained a court of not less than 
one hundred and fifty attendants : even in Lent his table 
was served with twenty dishes and a suitable dessert, 
and in his palace gentlemen and cavaliers stood round 
the table in rows : French was spoken, and everything was 
got up in the French style : a crowd of servants brought the 
dishes into the last antechamber, then another crowd of gen- 
tlemen clothed in black received them and set them on the 
table. In the audience-chamber of this G-erman prince there 
stood a throne, under the canopy of which a likeness of the 
Pope was suspended ; and in this German country the Pope's 
nuncio bestowed livings, and kept up a species of court and 
chancery, at German cost ; he had a reporter and chancellor, 
two chamberlains and two grooms of the chambers, two chap- 
lains, and eight servants ; he kept six horses, and, besides all 
this, sent large sums for himself and for the Pope to Home. 



APPENDIX. 



445 



Then follows a description of the boundless and infamous 
luxury and extravagance of Count Brlihl's household at Dres- 
den in 1744, the army of servants, and the ostentatious prefer- 
ence of everything French. 



XI.— Page 133. 

The following is a description of the manners of Yon 
Busche, the Minister of George II. and the friend of Queen 
Caroline. 

"He could not endure clothes*, neck-handkerchiefs, or other 
things of certain colours, such as blue and blue-mourant. On 
one occasion, Bergrath (Councillor of Mines) Biitemeister 
went to dine with him. The Minister no sooner saw him 
than he called out, ' Groom ! Groom ! ' and ran away. The 
groom came back, and told Biitemeister, that his Excellency 
could not endure his dress, and he would therefore be good 
enough to go and choose another from the Minister's ward- 
robe. This he did ; but as Biitemeister was a short thick 
man, and the Privy Councillor tall and thin, the former cut a 
singular figure in his clothes. But the Privy Councillor was 
peculiarly gracious to him at table, and rejoiced that things 
had been done according to his wish." — Busching's Contribu- 
tions towards the Biographies of ^Remarkable Persons, pt. i. 
p. 309. (Halle, 1783.) 

Herr von JNiissler relates, that the Minister being enraged 
at his brother and Heiliger for maintaining that what he 
thought was lamb was really veal, caused his valet to call up 
the cook, who, being previously warned, decided the matter 
in his favour. The Privy Coimcillor now shouted out, " Herr 
Heiliger! Herr Heiliger! are you still eating veal?" "Yes," 
answered the latter, " your Excellency, it is, and will remain 
veal ; and your cook only agreed with your opinion in order 
to please you." The Minister became angry, and said, "Herr 



446 



APPENDIX. 



Heiliger never ate such a ragout at his own table, and he 
should not interfere in things he does not understand; he 
had better now give over such a foolish defence." Heiliger 
wished to prolong the dispute, but the party brought it to 
an end by agreeing with the Minister ; and those who sat 
near Heiliger begged him to let it drop, which he did. But 
when the Minister continued repeatedly to cry out, " Herr 
Heiliger, is the ragout still veal?" he rose from the table, 
put on his hat, and went away. 



XII.— Page 1G3. 

Talleyrand writes : " Yous y verrez que presque toutes les 
grandes maisons de l'Allemagne desirent qu'il soit pris des 
arrangemens convenables a la Eepublique sur les frontieres 
vers le Ellin ; que la cession de la rive gauche n'eprouvera 
point d'obstacle serieux de leur part, pourvu qu'elles soient de- 
dommagees sur l'autre rive par des secularisations equivalentes. 
Quant a la Prusse, elle parait un peu confuse du role quelle 
a joue en reclamant l'integrite de l'Empire Germanique, tandis 
quelle est liee avec nous par une convention secrete qui sup- 
pose la cession a la Eepublique de toute la partie gauche, 
moyennant un dedommagement pour le stathouder, egalement 
pris sur la rive droit e du Ehin." 

On the 19th of August, when Talleyrand was already 
Minister, he writes: " C'est dans ce systeme de secularisation 
auquel il faut en venir tot ou tard, et qui est deja consenti par 
la Prusse, la Hesse, Wiirtemberg et Bade, que l'Empereur 
trouvera a la fois un dedommagement plus ample, et un ar- 
rondissement plus convenable a ses etats hereditaires, que 
dans de provinces Italiennes, agitees par les principes de la 
democratie, et qui d'ailleurs seraient pour sa maison des sujets 
perpetuels de guerre." 



APPENDIX. 



447 



XIII.— Page 169. 

Schlosser calls Dohm " an honest man, filled with the spirit 
of the finest period of Germany, full of love for freedom and 
his country, and as well acquainted with affairs of State as 
with books ; — the only man who combined the learning of the 
old method of education, and the capacities of an able man of 
business, with that eager zeal which would have enabled him 
thoroughly to reform the dead German life, benumbed by in- 
difference and pedantry." 



XIV.— Page 188. 

The Emperor Francis was not peculiar in his accomplish- 
ments as a linguist. A little earlier, the following answer 
was sent by Frederic William I. of Prussia to a protest of 
Count Dohna's against a horse-tax, which was to be substi- 
tuted for a duty on horned cattle, and which ended, " Tout 
le pays sera mine." To which the King answered, " Tout le 
pays sera ruine? Nihil credo, aber das credo, dass die Jun- 
kers ihre Autoritat wird ruinirt werden. Ich stabilire die 
Souverainetat wie einen Kocher von Bronce," 



XV.— -Page 202. 

" Ail these men," says M. de Varnhagen, speaking of the 
remarkable constellation then assembled in Hamburg, of 
which Klopstock was the brightest star, " were more or less 
favourable to the French Revolution ; and, while abhorring 
the cruelties Into which it degenerated, persevered in their 
approbation of the principles out of which it sprang. The 
most zealous adherent of the new order of things was Syndic 



448 



APPENDIX. 



Sieveking, a man of uncommon energy and talent, who, as 
Envoy to Paris, had maintained good relations between the 
Republics of France and Hamburg with great address." 

He says of himself and his contemporaries, in 1804-5 : 
' ' Napoleon's victories frightened us, but our wishes for his 
enemies were easily dissipated ; and when we for a moment 
represented to ourselves the brave French soldiers as the 
champions of liberty, we readily turned our inclinations to- 
wards them. The dubious conduct of Prussia held us for a 
while in anxious expectation, but she soon passed from war- 
like menaces to peaceful agreement." 



XVI.— Page 211. 

"Joseph's Life is a history of the disappointments of a 
prince, who, inspired with the best intentions, contends 
against the existing state of things, without finding any as- 
sistants or fellow-labourers, or without even seeking any. 
He opposed his own common sense to prescriptive right and 
feudal institutions, to politics and pedantry, to the study of 
the law, and to the then-prevailing superstition, — nay, even 
to the constitution and to charters of every description ; he 
was often obliged therefore to act the tyrant against his will, 
in order to carry into effect those measures which form a sub- 
ject of rejoicing to all men of understanding in Austria, even 
to the present day. He alone was able to diffuse the little 
light, which all the friends of progressive improvement hailed 
with joy, and for which many yet bless the Emperor in secret." 
— ScJilosser. 



XVII.— Page 217. 

It was on his return from this interview that Francis, after 
a long silence, said to his aide-de-camp Lamberti, with that pe- 



APPENDIX. 



449 



cuiiar expression of intense anger which his eyes and month 
conveyed, " Jetz weil In gesoge hab, jetz kann I'n gar nim- 
mer leiden." — Lebensbilder, etc. 



XVIII.— Page 233. 

I extract a few remarks from Friedrich von Schlegel's ' Kritik 
von Woldemar,' because they apply to this whole class of 
books, and they appear to me profoundly just. 

" They (Woldemar and Henrietta) talk incessantly of the 
lofty ideal of friendship, and formally discuss that concerning 
which people of real delicacy would have understood each 
other in silence — the nature of their connection ; on the other 
hand, where the most prompt sincerity was necessary, they 
brood in secret over real or fancied wrongs. 

" There must of course be many contradictions arising out 
of a relation, the very groundwork of which is a contradiction. 
Henrietta's friendship must not be love, and yet it is nothing 
else. The feeling of want, dependence, and absorption which 
characterize it, is totally distinct from friendship, which must 
not be founded on a sense of mutual dependence, and must be 
kept as free as possible from all feeling of want. . . . 

" It is true that friendship between a man and a woman is 
quite possible, — a friendship so passionate as to resemble love, 
yet essentially different from love. But, in such a case, the 
man must not be vain, or sensual, or feeble, but master of 
himself. The woman must not only be capable of looking 
beyond the horizon of women who live only in their beloved 
or their children ; she must be able to love Ideas actively and 
practically, not merely to talk about them ; for friendship is 
a common attachment to, and enthusiasm for, Ideas ; and she 
must be got beyond the wants and the anxieties of a girl. 

" The truth is, not a day passes in which such friend- 
ships between persons of different sexes, as that of Woldemar 
and Henrietta, are not begun, terminated, or troubled — by 



450 



APPENDIX. 



their own fault, and other people's ; for nothing is more 
common than this mixture of strength and weakness, — of 
pure love and pure selfishness. JN~or is this freedom-de- 
stroying, boundless devotedness, which Jacobi so often, 
directly or indirectly, lauds as the fairest virtue of woman, at 
all rare ; it is the ordinary quality of all women who are good- 
natured, and incapable of raising themselves to any indepen- 
dence of character. This is what Woldemar requires from his 
friend as well as from his wife ; and his ideal of friendship is 
only too often realized in ordinary marriages. One might call 
such a friendsliip an exaggerated marriage." 

" The tendency to find their characters, actions and rela- 
tions, severally and mutually, extraordinary, strange, and in- 
comprehensible, is a characteristic of all this class of heroes 
and heroines. They cannot do the most trivial act without 
felling into ecstasies at their own singular nature." 

"It is a great misfortune for a man to become the pet of 
those immediately about him ; he has often only his faults to 
thank for it, and these it increases." 

" Woldemar's relations and friends seem to exist only for 
his sake ; when they are not acting or suffering for him, they 
are holding council about the state of his heart and soul. How 
intolerably disturbing and oppressive must the consciousness 
of this be to a healthy-minded man ! Such a man as Wolde- 
mar is only confirmed in his vanity by it, and sunk deeper 
into those speculations about himself to which he is so prone. 
This i Qriibeln is the best means to weaken and destroy a 
mind already diseased, as continued physicking destroys the 
body. 

" Woldemar, who is active only where one is sure to meet 
with no resistance whatever, — in the domain of the imagina- 
tion, — makes it a regular business to register all his feelings. 

" The tone which is diffused over the whole book, and 



APPENDIX. 



451 



gives it a monotony of colour, is exaggeration (over-excite- 
ment — Ueberspannung) ; a tension of every object of love or 
desire beyond all the bounds of truth, justice, or propriety, 
into the measureless void." 



XIX.— Page 260. 

" I honour the King for his piety and virtue, and his pure 
love of all that is good ; I love him for his kind and benevolent 
nature ; and I pity him for living in an iron age, in which his 
gentleness and rectitude only accelerated his fall, and in which 
the one thing needful is an overwhelming military talent, 
united with reckless selfishness." — Stein. 



XX.— Page 304. 

There is a letter of his to the Duchess, admirable for its 
simplicity, dignity, and calmness, and for the affectionate and 
unexaggerated respect with which he addresses his noble 
wife. 

" A. 8. A. S. 

" Madame la Duchesse regnante de Weimar. 

" Savelberg, 27 Octohre, 1806. 

" Monsieur de Spiegel m'a atteint avant-hier. Un detache- 
ment des corps que je commandais, avait pris la route de 
Hameln ; il a suivi celle-la, croyant m'y trouver, et c'est cet 
incident-la et plusieurs autres qui l'ont induit en erreur, et 
ont ete la cause de ce qu'il m'a trouve si tard. 

" J'ai expedie le capitaine de Bose, au service de Saxe, au 
Hoi de Prusse, pour supplier sa Majeste de renvoyer tout-de- 
suite mon bataillon a Weimar, et j'ai adresse mes voeux au 



452 



APPENDIX. 



Hoi, pour qu'il decidat, si avec honneur je pouvais quitter son 
service a present, ou non. 

" J'attends journellenient la reponse. Yous savez, que je 
n'ai eu dans le dernier temps aucune influence a Berlin, que 
Ton ne m'y aimait point, et que j'aurais quitte le service Prus- 
sien cet ete, si les lois de l'lionneur ne m'avaient pas force de 
suivre l'armee a cette guerre-ci. 

" II y a vingt ans que j'y sers. Je ne pouvais m'en detacher 
sans un blame ; et la persuasion d'avoir fait son devoir, et une 
reputation pure, c'est la seule consolation veritable, qui ne 
nous quitte jamais, si le mallieur nous derobeles agremens de 
l'existence. 

' 'II m'est connu, que l'Empereur lionore le soldat qui fait 
son metier avec zele ; il ne pourra done jamais me mepriser. Sa 
volonte supreme decidera du sort de ma famille et mon pays. 

" II est a esperer que le liaute clemence de sa Majeste Im- 
periale inspirera a ce monarque vainqueur des sentimens 
equitables par rapport a notre Saxe. Elle est dans ses mains. 

" Je desire qu'il s'adoucisse, et que sa Majeste Imperiale 
m'accorde son estime. 

" Par rapport a ce que vous avez fait pour Weimar, avec 
quelle Constance et avec quelle courage vous avez supporte 
les adversites, il n'y a qu'une voix la-dessus : votre propre con- 
science seule peut vous en recompenser completement. Yous 
vous etes fait une reputation digne des temps passes ! Que 
la Providence vous benisse et vous fasse jouir du fruit de vos 
bonnes actions ! Je n'ecris a personne qua vous. 

" Adieu, ma bonne amie ! Que vous soyez heureuse, comme 
vous le merit ez ! 

"C. A., Dec de TVeimae." 



XXI.— Page 271. 

44 As his faithful attendants bore him in a litter, in his flight 
across the Danish frontier, blinded and tortured by his wounds, 



APPENDIX. 



453 



Karl Willielm Ferdinand's deepest agony was the disgrace. 
£ Quelle lionte, quelle lionte, ' he groaned forth. Bonaparte 
had refused his prayer to be allowed to die in the castle of 
his fathers." — Lebensbilder, etc. 



XXII.— Page 318. 

I intended to translate the very curious conversation be- 
tween ]N"apoleon and Wieland, related by Fr. von Muller, who 
heard it, but I cannot task my readers' patience further. They 
will find it in the ' Erinnerungen, p. 249. 



XXIII.— Page 320. 

Immermann thus describes the influences of literature in 
his student days, which fell within the period of the French 
domination. "Lessing was somewhat out of fashion. His 
adorers were to be found among men of a maturer age. But 
Klopstock was by no means so neglected. It was esteemed 
a sacred duty to possess the 'Messiah,' and, if possible, to 
master the first ten books. His odes gave us no trouble ; 
they filled us with a sort of rapture. Wieland' s elegant rail- 
lery passed with us for the flower of wisdom. Voss's i Louisa ' 
was in high honour ; above all, Schiller and Goethe, the for- 
mer dead a year before the national downfall, and still beam- 
ing in the full glow of sunset ; the latter living, and sowing 
the richest treasures in the furrows of the miserable times. 

" The poetry of Germany," he adds, "was peculiarly adapted 
to be the consolation of an oppressed people. Goethe and 
Schiller were the two apostles whose preaching elevated the 
German people to courage and to hope. The relation in which 
the youth of Germany stood to their great writers was one of 
passionate affection. They appeared to us saints, whose foot- 
steps it was the highest happiness to behold. Criticism was 
not thought of by the young men of that day ; nor were our 



454 



APPENDIX. 



eyes distracted. Literature formed our only intellectual food. 

TJie arts of design, which now occv/py so many minds, were 
never even mentioned among us," 



XXIV.— Page 336. 

The following letter was printed in a little volume of frag- 
ments from German prose writers published in 1841 ; but, as 
that is little known, and is now I believe out of print, it may 
not be amiss to place once more before the public so noble a 
production. The Queen very likely views the conduct of her 
husband in a more favourable light than an impartial judge 
would do ; but who expects or wishes to find in such a woman 
as Louisa of Prussia an impartial judge of her husband ? 

Louisa, Queen of Prussia, to Tier Father, the Duke of 
Mecklenburg- St relit z. 

" Memel, June 17th, 1807. 
" With the deepest emotion, and tears of the tenderest gra- 
titude, I have read your letter of April last. How can I thank 
you, best and kindest of fathers, for all the proofs I have re- 
ceived, of your love, your favour, your indescribable goodness 
to me ? What a consolation, what a support are they to me 
in my afflictions ! The object of such love cannot be utterly 
unhappy. Another enormous calamity has overtaken us, and 
we are now on the point of leaving the kingdom. You may 
think what is my state, — what are my feelings. Yet, in the 
name of God, I conjure you, do not misunderstand your 
daughter ! Believe not that any pusillanimous sorrow bows 
down my head. There are two main sources of courage that 
raise me above all that fate can do : the first is, the thought 
that we are no sport of a blind chance, but that we abide in 
God's hand, and under the guidance of His providence ; the 
second, that we fall with honour. The King has proved,— to 
the whole world he has proved, — that he prefers honour to 



APPENDIX, 



455 



shameful submission. Prussia will not wear the chains of a 
voluntary slavery. JSTor is there a single point on which the 
King could have acted otherwise, without being false to his 
own character, and a traitor to his people. What strength 
the consciousness of this gives, he alone can know through 
whose whole being the feeling of honour flows like life-blood. 
But to the point. By the disastrous battle of Friedland, 
Konigsberg has fallen into the hands of the Erench. The 
enemy presses hard upon us, and if this danger approaches 
but a little nearer, I shall be compelled to leave Memel with 
my children. The King will rejoin the Emperor. I go, as 
soon as the peril becomes imminent, to Eiga : — God will help 
me to endure the moment when I must pass the frontier of 
Prussia. There I shall stand in need of strength ; but I 
look up to Heaven, whence come both good and evil, and my 
fast faith is, that it sends not more than we can bear. Once 
more, best of fathers, we fall with honour, respected by other 
nations, and we shall never cease to have friends, because we 
deserve them. How tranquillizing this thought is, it is im- 
possible to say. I bear all with a calmness and composure 
which only a peaceful conscience and pure intentions can give. 
Be assured therefore, dearest father, that we can never be 
completely unhappy, and that many who are loaded with 
crowns and successes are not so cheerful as we. God send 
every virtuous man peace in his own breast, and he will ever 
find cause of rejoicing. Yet one thing more for your consola- 
tion : — nothing will ever be done on our side that is not con- 
sistent with the strictest honour, and with fidelity to the 
common cause. Think not of the possibility of any pitiful 
concessions for our own peculiar interest. This will be a com- 
fort to you, I know, and to all who belong to me. I am ever 
your true, dutiful, and most loving daughter, and, God be 
thanked, I can say, since your gracious kindness permits me, 

" Your Eriend, 

"Louisa." 



456 



APPENDIX. 



XXV.— Page 340. 

The most remarkable example of silent and ceaseless brood- 
ing over the means of delivering Germany from her yoke, is 
that of General yon Knesebeck, for the details of which we 
refer the reader to General Mliffling's Life, which is donbly 
known to the English pnblic, through a translation and an 
able article in the ' Quarterly Review.' 



XXVI.— Page 360. 

Varnhagen joined the Austrian army just before the battle 
of Wagram (July, 1808). " It was still the old Imperial 
army," he says, " formed by the union of the most different 
peoples, and bound together by the unbroken tradition of 
centuries. You might think you saw the very soldiery de- 
scribed by Schiller, in ' "Wallensteins Lager,' — the brutal, reck- 
less, jovial fellows, to whom the fanfaronade of war was utterly 
unknown. A grenadier had his musket curled up in his hand by 
a cannon-ball, like a hunting-horn ; he looked at it, and said, 
with pitiful look, ' Such a good musket ! ' An officer asked a 
small party of grenadiers, who had just been charging, where 
their battalion was : ' We are the battalion,' said one, simply." 



XXVIL— Page 366. 

I must be excused for giving the following beautiful sen- 
tence in the original ; I found it among innumerable anony- 
mous scraps, and from its style must attribute it to the pen 
of M. de Varnhagen. 

" Es ist viel iiber jene Zeit geschrieben geworden ; — wer 
sie in gesunder Jugend frisch durchlebt hat, dem wird keine 
der Beschreibungen vollig geniigen ; sie hatte Das mit der 
Liebe gemein ; dass, obgleich sie in Aller Herzen widerhallte, 
jeder Einzelne sie ganz anders durchfuhlt, durchlebt oder 
durchtraumt zu haben wahnt, als seine Genossen." 



APPENDIX. 



457 



XXVIII.— Page 367. 

Bolilen speaks of the disappearance of whole troops of boys 
torn from their parents. This is not wonderful ; for of what 
value to conquerors are human beings who cannot fight ? But 
we read with surprise of the disappearance of works of art, 
which were supposed to be taken to adorn France. 

" Berthier asked M. de Varnhagen and his friends, then in 
Paris, if they had seen all the galleries of art ; upon which an 
elderly French general, whose name they could not hear, spoke 
of the Musee Napoleon, and expressed his surprise at finding 
so few of the conquered works of art in Paris, since he had, as 
he said, seen at least three times as many packed up in foreign 
countries. A great portion of them seemed to disappear be- 
tween their departure and arrival. The following may serve 
as an example how carefully they were treated. Napoleon 
chose to carry away the simple sandstone pillar, erected in 
commemoration of the battle of Hosbach ; all on a sudden it 
was missing, and at the Peace was nowhere to be found. The 
Emperor was in a rage, and inquiries were made underhand 
as to what it looked like : they were very near substituting a 
false one. At last the true one was unexpectedly found at 
Brest, and is now restored to its original place." 



XXIX.— Pages 368, 403. 

I must add a recollection of my own childhood to those I 
have borrowed from others. I was at Yarmouth when the 
Duke of Brunswick- O els and his gallant band of Black Hus- 
sars landed ; I heard they had escaped from the French, and 
had passed through incredible hardships and dangers. Of all 
this I had but a very faint and imperfect conception. But I 
distinctly remember the black uniforms, the white death's- 
head and cross-bones on the caps, the worn and squalid looks 
of some, and the extremely youthful appearance of others, — 
above all, the long fair hair twisted round these young but 



458 



APPENDIX. 



weather-beaten heads. What struck me above all, however, 
was to see groups of them in the confectioners' shops, eating 
barley-sugar and other such wares with astonishing avidity. 
The English code of morals, which condemns a taste for 
" sweet things " as childish and almost disgraceful, made me 
feel the sight of these hardy warriors so employed to be most 
strange and incongruous. Poor fellows ! I have often thought 
since, with profound compassion, of the long and dire priva- 
tions which rendered the first attainable " Siissigkeiten" so 
irresistible. 



XXX.— Page 380. 

Even the Bavarians, who had been among the earliest allies 
of N apoleon, were beginning to follow him with a reluctant 
and hesitating obedience. The following is a very character- 
istic letter of his to the Bavarian General von Wrede, of 
which Bitter von Lang obtained possession : — 

" Monsieur le General de Wrede, — Je suis mecontent des 
troupes Bavaroises. Au lieu de se battre, elles clabaudent 
et font des intrigues contre leur chef. Je viens de traduire le 
General Stenzel a un conseil d'enquete pour avoir abandonne 
Golling. Pourquoi n'y mourait-il pas ? On n'abandonne pas 
une poste sans l'ordre de son chef. Les troupes Bavaroises sont 
demoralisees. Montrez ma lettre a Duroc, et dites-moi si les 
Bavarois veulent meriter mon estime ou mon mejpris. Lorsque 
des troupes sont demoralisees, c'est au chef et aux oniciers a 
retablir leur moral, ou a perir. II y a eu des traits de lachete 
de commis, qu'il est a l'honneur de l'armee Bavaroise de de- 
noncer et de faire punir; tels que de s'etre laisses prendre 
prisonniers dans les gorges de Tyrol, plutot que d'effectuer la 
retraite. A Varmee il ny a pas de Prince. II est possible 
que le Prince-Hoy al ait a se plaindre du Due de Danzig ; mais 
cela ria rien de commun avec Vhonneur des armes : il fallait 
marcher a l'ennemi lorsqu'il insultait aux drapeaux Bavarois 



APPENDIX. 



459 



jusqu'aux debouches de Salzbourg. Je voulais faire un ordre 
a votre armee. Get ordre fut reste daus 1'histoire. J'ai pre- 
fere vous ecrire, — a vous, que j'estime pour vos taleus et votre 
courage. Parlez a vos eamarades, et faites qu'ils ue soient 
point deshonores. Qu'on ne m'oppose ni Si, ni Mais, ni Car ; 
je suis un vieux soldat. On doit vaincre ou mourir. J'aurais 
voulu qu'au premier soupcon de 1'attaque, le Prince eut couru 
aux avant-postes, et eut redonne du moral a sa division. 
Comme je sais que vous etes attache au Prince autant que je 
le suis moi-meme, vous ne ferez de cette lettre que l'usage 
que vous jugerez convenable. 
" Sur ce, je prie Dieu, etc. 

" Napoleon. 

" Schonbrunn, (sic) 
"le 8 Oct., 1809." 



XXXI.— Page 382. 

The memory and the sentiment of these days is still fresh 
and living in German hearts. In the sitting of the 1st May, 
1847, of the Prussian Chamber, the venerable Minister at 
War, General von Boyen, having alluded to the days of the 
struggle for independence, an eminent deputy from the Rhine 
provinces, and a member of the opposition, Herr von Becke- 
rath, said, " An honoured member on the ministerial benches 
had led us back to the hallowed ground of our great national 
recollections. We followed him willingly, for that ground is 
an evergreen spot, fanned by the breath of that love of coun- 
try which inspires us with strength for the noblest efforts ; 
we followed him willingly, for the speaker was one of those 
men on whom the people look with veneration, because they 
fulfilled the great mission at that time confided to them ; we 
followed him, moreover, willingly into those times, because 
they afforded brilliant proofs that the army and the people 
are not two, but one livmg whole ; proofs, that in every breast, 

x 2 



460 



APPENDIX. 



whatever were the colour of the coat that covered it, there 
beat but one heart for king and country." 

General von Eoyen was one of the few men who enjoyed 
the complete and unalterable confidence of the late Xing, and 
to the last hour of his long life the profound respect of the 
people. 



XXXII.— Page 399. 

This was the Government of which Johannes von Muller, 
the historian of Germany, had become the servant. Steffens 
describes his appearance in the train of King Jerome as Con- 
seiller d'Etat and head of the University of Halle in 1811. 
Both had been overwhelmed by the same calamity - ? but Stef- 
fens had continued poor, unpatronized, an object of suspicion 
to the French Government. Von Muller had been promoted, 
decorated, salaried. In this unequal condition, Muller the 
Chef of his former colleague, they met after three years' 
separation. The man whom the conqueror had infamized by 
his favours " had lost all hope ; he was completely dejected, 
and did not conceal it. He warned me," says Steffens, " that 
he had heard of my imprudent expressions. ' 1 can protect no 
one/ said he ; * I am forced to witness in silence the ruin of 
the imprudent.' After I had been with him about half an 
hour, he reached out his hand to me with a melancholy air ; 
the tears were in his eyes. ' You must go,' said he ; ' a longer 
interview might seem suspicious.' This was the man who had 
preserved and uttered the great traditions of the German 
mind. Such a spectacle was dreadful : it was terrible to be 
compelled to change respect into pity." 

There are some letters from Perthes to J ohannes von Mul- 
ler, after the latter had taken office under the French, which 
show the struggle between reluctance to believe his old and 
admired friend a traitor to his country, and disapprobation 



APPENDIX. 



461 



of Miiller's conduct. He thought the historian had been se- 
duced not so much by self-interest, as by a fantastic and in- 
fatuated enthusiasm for a striking historical figure, — a thing 
not impossible in Germany. 



XXXIII.— Page 412. 

A citizen of the middle class gave 20,000 marcs to fit out a 
squadron under his own command. 

A collection made among the servants alone of Hamburg 
amounted to 10,000 marcs. 



XXXIV.— Page 417. 

The following are examples of the sentiments entertained 
by enlightened G-ermans with regard to England. 

Perthes' strongest conviction was that the hope of Germany 
lay in union alone. He had no faith in anything that could 
be done by this or that sovereign. " How," asks he, " did 
the English obtain their Constitution? How extort their 
liberties from contending parties? How maintain them, 
against concentrated power and strong governments ? Who 
kept them in sight ? How was all this transmitted from 
father to son ? Here is a mirror to hold up to Germany." 

Letter from the Count F. L. Stolberg to Perthes. 

" Tatenliausen, February, 1814. 
" The present is a seed-time such as never was before in 
Germany. They who sought to make the country a desert, 
only made it fit to receive the seed. 

" God called the scattered dry bones together, and vigorous 
men and manly youth stood erect, and conquered. . , . It 
was the most earnest endeavour of the German Jacobins, — 



462 



APPENDIX. 



and how successful !— to make England contemptible and 
odious, — that country whose Constitution secures the liberty 
of the individual and the welfare of the nation more than any 
that ever existed, while, at the same time, it is the bulwark 
of the independence of every other country in Europe, de- 
feats every attempt to subjugate any continental country ; — 
has no desire, — can have none, — to make conquests in Europe, 
and has just freed the whole of Europe from the hardest and 
most ignominious yoke. To reproach England with acting 
from selfish motives, is to reproach her with having her welfare 
inextricably bound up with our existence, her freedom with 
our independence, no less than our freedom with her indepen- 
dence. 

"We have not bought our regeneration too dear by the 
disgrace and the suffering of twenty years. May we but de- 
serve the one as we deserved the other ! May we preserve 
the community of spirit that has been awakened ! May the 
political pusillanimity which has been for centuries so pecu- 
liar to our nation, always so valiant in the field, be for ever 
banished ! Napoleon's fall is certain ; we have broken the 
French yoke, but much remains to be done. All ties are 
loosened. What concessions are required ! what moderation 
on the side of the sovereigns ! what willing sacrifices on the 
part of all ! 

" F. L. Gkaf zu Stolbekg." 



XXXV.— Page 428. 

Hoffmann's J ournal shows the utter and almost incredible 
ignorance in which the inhabitants of Dresden were kept of 
all that was going on and preparing. " On the 15th, Napo- 
leon left Dresden by the Silesian road. The following days. 
' deathlike stillness.' It is secretly reported that Austria has 
joined the Allies. It is said that the Russians and Prus- 
sians are approaching the city." The first authentic news of 



APPENDIX. 



463 



their approach was conveyed by the thunder of cannon, and 
the sight of the wounded brought in on wheelbarrows. On 
the 26th he saw the batteries thrown up close to the town. 

" At eleven o'clock on that day, the Emperor came riding 
at a brisk pace over the bridge, mounted on a little cream- 
coloured horse : — there was a dead silence among the people ; 
he turned his head rapidly on every side, and had a manner I 
never saw in him before. He rode to the palace, alighted for 
a few seconds, and rode again to the bridge, where he gave 
orders to his aides-de-camp, brief, but very loud. He took 
snuff very frequently, and looked continually through a little 
telescope across the Elbe." 

The same afternoon the city was bombarded. 

" August 30. — Unbroken, dead stillness. Met the Empe- 
ror. With a fearful look and tone, he called to an aide-de- 
camp, ' Voyons ! ' 

" October 22. — The Emperor is beaten, and has retreated 
to Erfurt. 

" November 22. — Saw an Austrian and a Russian officer in 
full dress. A feeling of joy, like no other. Yes, it is true ! 
— Ereedom ! 

" December 21. — My feelings were utterly indescribable 
as I saw the French march out after the capitulation, with- 
out their arms. How ingeniously they have devastated beau- 
tiful Dresden you can have no idea. Now we breathe freely." 



XXXVI.— Page 430. 

I must relate two little anecdotes, which show how intense 
was the feeling of hatred to the conquerors, and how it over- 
mastered every other feeling, even in persons removed by sex 
and age from any ordinary political influences. I was talking 
about the " French times " with my friend Adele Schopen- 
hauer, when she told me, but as nothing extraordinary, the 
following fact. In 1813, when the people of Weimar rose 



464 



APPENDIX. 



against the French, M. de St. Aignan believed himself in 
danger, and made his escape through Madame Schopen- 
hauer's garden. Adele happened to be at home and alone. 
She hastened to his assistance, and conducted him to the gate. 
In doing so she spoke to him in French. He was startled, 
and said, "Mais, Mademoiselle, je ne vous ai jamais entendu 
parler Francais !" " C'est que je ne l'ai pas voulu," she re- 
plied. Yet M. de St. Aignan had been her mother's constant 
guest during the whole time of his residence at Weimar. A 
singular proof of the strength of the feeling of national injury 
in a young girl, who liked talking, and talked French well ! 
Nor was she at all ignorant of, or blind to, the high claims of 
the French to the admiration of mankind. 

The other incident relates to a woman of the humbler classes. 
We heard it from a lady at Berlin, who was intimately con- 
nected with many of the most eminent actors in the scenes 
we have described. A poor woman, who used to bring her 
flowers from a village near Berlin, had arrived at her door 
one day with her usual load, and while there was told that 
the Russians had set fire to the village she inhabited, and in 
which French troops were quartered, and that her own house 
was in flames. She clasped her hands with a sort of rapture, 
and exclaimed, " Let it burn ! let everything I have burn, if 
it will help to get the French out of Prussia ! " 



J. E. TAYLOR; PBIHTER, LITTLE QT7EE]* STEEET, LINCOLN'S ECFN FIELDS. 



THE END. 




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